Misoneism

//ˌmɪsəˈniː.ɪzəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The distrust or hatred of new ideas or things. uncountable, usually

    "In politics this type of philistine has more than once denounced the "golden rule" as an "iridescent dream" of a lunatic. Such philistinism pleases the misoneism of the mediocre, whence the enthusiasm over platitudes and the reign of the philistine in newspaper art, literature and science."

  2. 2
    hatred of change or innovation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
neophobianeophobism

Example

More examples

"In politics this type of philistine has more than once denounced the "golden rule" as an "iridescent dream" of a lunatic. Such philistinism pleases the misoneism of the mediocre, whence the enthusiasm over platitudes and the reign of the philistine in newspaper art, literature and science."

Etymology

From Italian misoneismo (after Cesare Lombroso). Equivalent to miso- + neo- + -ism.

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