Maximalism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The opposite of minimalism: a tendency toward excess. uncountable, usually

    "With its romantic harmonies out of Berlioz, the 4½-hour “Einstein” score marked a passage out of Minimalism into a new genre that John Rockwell dubbed “Maximalism.”"

  2. 2
    An ideology favoring radical or aggressive action to achieve expansive goals; the stance of maximalists. uncountable, usually

    "In other words, in contrast to supporters of Gahal and other advocates of territorial maximalism, they judged peace with their neighbors to be more important than Jewish sovereignty over as much of the Land of Israel as possible."

Example

More examples

"I would no longer call this maximalism, but obsession."

Etymology

From maximal + -ism, by analogy with minimalism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.