Negativism

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A persistent pessimistic or skeptical attitude. countable, uncountable

    "It's easier to sow inner dissension than to unite for betterment. Negativism can even be fun for some who have such limited vision that they can't "see" how mch has already been achieved by those who struggle rather than just bitch."

  2. 2
    characterized by habitual skepticism and a disagreeable tendency to deny or oppose or resist suggestions or commands wordnet
  3. 3
    A stubborn tendency to do the opposite of what one is asked. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
abnegationalienationarrestarrestationarrestmentautism

Example

More examples

"It's easier to sow inner dissension than to unite for betterment. Negativism can even be fun for some who have such limited vision that they can't "see" how mch has already been achieved by those who struggle rather than just bitch."

Etymology

From negative + -ism.

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