Safetyism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An obsession with keeping people safe from perceived threats. uncountable

    "“Safetyism” refers to a culture or belief system in which safety has become a sacred value, which means that people become unwilling to make trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral concerns. […] The preoccupation with safetyism is clearest in the generation that began to enter college around 2013."

Example

More examples

"“Safetyism” refers to a culture or belief system in which safety has become a sacred value, which means that people become unwilling to make trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral concerns. […] The preoccupation with safetyism is clearest in the generation that began to enter college around 2013."

Etymology

From safety + -ism. Popularized in the 2018 book The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, see quotations.

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