Ism
name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism.
"[…] his religion, his worship was like his daily bread to him; — which he did not take the trouble to talk much about; which he merely ate at stated intervals, and lived and did his work upon! This is Abbot Samson’s Catholicism of the Twelfth Century; — something like the Ism of all true men in all true centuries, I fancy! Alas, compared with any of the Isms current in these poor days, what a thing!"
- 2 Initialism of Imperial Service Medal. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 3 a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school wordnet
- 4 An ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism.; A form of discrimination, such as racism or sexism.
"Parents and educators play a critical role in helping children of all ages navigate current events and talk openly about the historical roots of the various ‘isms in our country."
- 5 Abbreviation of interstellar medium. abbreviation, alt-of
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- 6 Initialism of industrial scientific medical. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 1 Initialism of Institute for Supply Management. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"The ISM report came as another worrying sign following last month's surprisingly low number, which ended a 34-month growth streak."
Example
More examples"[…] his religion, his worship was like his daily bread to him; — which he did not take the trouble to talk much about; which he merely ate at stated intervals, and lived and did his work upon! This is Abbot Samson’s Catholicism of the Twelfth Century; — something like the Ism of all true men in all true centuries, I fancy! Alas, compared with any of the Isms current in these poor days, what a thing!"
Etymology
From the suffix -ism (“belief”), particularly (in the 19th century) in the sense of "social movement". Compare phobia, from -phobia, sophy, from -sophy, itis, from -itis, and ana, from -ana.
Related phrases
More for "ism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.