The Suffix -ism: The Suffix -ism, Part 4

The suffix ism is added to words to mean "the process or action of" or "the system, principle, or theory of." These four lists are arranged from easiest to most challenging. Learn them all and enjoy the feeling of optimism!

Here are links to our lists in the collection: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ostracism
    the state of being banished or excluded
    The young men who go to prison rather than college face a lifetime of closed doors, discrimination, and ostracism. The New Jim Crow
    In ancient Greece, ostrakismos was a punishment wherein someone was banished for ten years.
  2. chauvinism
    fanatical patriotism
    The Japanese promoted Asian chauvinism, an appeal to the people in British, French and Dutch colonies to throw off the yoke of their Western oppressors. Washington Times (Nov 17, 2019)
    Nicolas Chauvin was supposedly a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars who was famous for his loud public patriotism. His name was used as a label for anyone deemed patriotic to a fault, and later used to label anybody who believes that their nationality, gender, or other characteristic marks them as superior to others.
  3. empiricism
    application of observational methods in an art or science
    The essence of science is empiricism, or the understanding that knowledge is acquired from what we can perceive using our senses. Salon (Oct 1, 2021)
  4. hedonism
    an ethical system that values the pursuit of pleasure
    A lot of people today associate the Greek philosopher, born in 341 BC, with luxury or hedonism, but Epicurus’s teachings were really more focussed on simplicity. The Guardian (Feb 15, 2020)
    Hedone means "pleasure" in Greek.
  5. surrealism
    an artistic movement using fantastic and incongruous images
    In its time, surrealism was seen as amoral, disgusting and extreme because it claimed to make art from the stuff of dreams. The Guardian (Apr 8, 2011)
    Surreal is French for "more than real." Surrealism was a movement that began in France after World War I that used bizarre imagery, often taken from dreams, to create strange, haunting, and sometimes funny works of art.
  6. solecism
    a socially awkward or tactless act
    However, a fallacy is strictly an error made because of faulty reasoning or poor logic, and thus you appear to have committed a solecism. The Guardian (Jun 15, 2012)
    Solekismos means "speaking incorrectly" in Greek.
  7. stoicism
    an indifference to pleasure or pain
    Taleb is deeply and depressingly nostalgic for the virtues of the ancients, with their stoicism and tolerance for suffering. The Guardian (Nov 21, 2012)
    The Stoics were a group of philosophers in Ancient Greece, led by a man named Zeno. He used to lecture on a columned porch, known as a stoa, in Athens, and the name stuck.
  8. nepotism
    favoritism shown to relatives or friends by those in power
    “This may seem like nepotism, but my wife’s picture book is my favorite. It gets my vote as ‘World’s Most Beautiful Book’ as it scores top marks in three categories: text, illustration, and message. Time (Jun 24, 2015)
    Nepos means "nephew" in Latin. If you give a relative a job instead of a more qualified candidate, that's nepotism.
  9. jingoism
    fanatical patriotism
    Such schemes having failed, Napoleon tried next to satisfy French jingoism by the acquisition of the Duchy of Luxembourg. Wright, C. H. C. (Charles Henry Conrad)
    Jingo was a name given to British supporters of an 1878 decision to send the Royal Navy into Turkish waters to deter a Russian advance. Jingoistic is therefore used to describe someone who is eager for their country to enter and win wars.
  10. recidivism
    habitual relapse into crime
    “For a surprisingly high number of prisoners their time on the outside may be brief,” Oliver says because the national average of recidivism is 50 percent. Salon (Nov 9, 2015)
    The French verb récidiver means "to relapse or backslide" into sin or bad behavior.
  11. mutualism
    the relation between two organisms that benefit each other
    The relationship between cleaner shrimp and their clients is generally considered a mutualism: an association between two species where both benefit. New York Times (Sep 19, 2019)
Created on Thu Oct 08 11:21:19 EDT 2020 (updated Thu Apr 21 09:54:47 EDT 2022)

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