Pragmatism

//ˈpɹæɡmətɪzəm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth wordnet
  3. 3
    The idea that beliefs are identified with the actions of a believer, and the truth of beliefs with success of those actions in securing a believer's goals; the doctrine that ideas must be looked at in terms of their practical effects and consequences. countable, uncountable

    "Our conception of these practical consequences is for us the whole of our conception of the object, so far as that conception has positive significance at all. This is the principle of [Charles Sanders] Peirce, the principle of pragmatism."

  4. 4
    (philosophy) the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge and meaning and value wordnet
  5. 5
    The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    The habit of interfering in other people's affairs; meddlesomeness. countable, obsolete, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
realismanimalismatomismbehaviorismcommonsense realismcontrol

Example

More examples

"International relations are governed by pragmatism."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek stem of πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “act”) + -ism.

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