Vegetarianism

//vɛd͡ʒɪˈtɛɹi.ənɪzəm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The practice of following a vegetarian diet. uncountable, usually

    "Vegetarianism, he said, is an idea “that has three things going for it all at once—economics, health and compassion.”"

  2. 2
    Obsolete spelling of vegetarianism. alt-of, obsolete, uncountable, usually

    "“I must preface this essay by the confession that I am myself a Vegetarian, and that I mean to say all the good I can of the principles of Vegetarianism.”"

  3. 3
    a diet excluding all meat and fish wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abstainmentabstemiousnessabstentionabstinenceacid-ash dietallergy diet

Example

More examples

"Which is better: omnivorism, vegetarianism, or veganism?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Attested since circa 1847, when the British Vegetarian Society was founded. From vegetarian + -ism.

Etymology 2

First English attestation dates to 1848, according to Merriam-Webster. From vegetarian + -ism.

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