Gayism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Homosexuality. rare, uncountable
"Here the Bible appears to directly address only the subject of male homosexuality: gayism versus lesbianism. On the latter, the Bible appears to be silent."
- 2 A purported ideology behind (and promoting) homosexuality. derogatory, uncountable
"To succeed in its argument, it is necessary that gayism denies that the cause of being gay is reasonable, intelligible and comprehensible. If one is gay not because of any choice but because one is born into the sexual orientation,[…]"
- 3 Discrimination against gay people; hostility toward gay people. uncommon, uncountable
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:gayism."
Example
More examples"Here the Bible appears to directly address only the subject of male homosexuality: gayism versus lesbianism. On the latter, the Bible appears to be silent."
Etymology
From gay + -ism. The formation of sense 2 is similar to e.g. transgenderism; the formation of sense 3, "discrimination based on gayness", is similar to e.g. sexism being discrimination based on sex or racism being discrimination based on race.
More for "gayism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.