anomie

American  

[an-uh-mee] / ˈæn əˌmi /

Or anomy

noun

Sociology.

1. a state or condition of individuals or society characterized by a breakdown or absence of social norms and values, as in the case of uprooted people.

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anomie British  

/ ˈænəʊmɪ, əˈnɒmɪk /

noun

1. sociol lack of social or moral standards in an individual or society

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Other Word Forms

• anomic adjective

Etymology

Origin of anomie

1930–35; < French < Greek anomía lawlessness. See a- ⁶, -nomy

Explanation

A person who feels alone and anxious because there doesn't seem to be anyone in charge of keeping order, feels a sense of anomie. Anomie comes from the Greek anomos meaning "lawless," so anomie means a lack of moral standards, or a sense of lawlessness, or sometimes the anxiety that comes from being in a lawless place. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator doesn't react like a normal person. When his mother dies and he is put on trial for murdering a man, he responds in an oddly numb way, expressing a sense of anomie.

Example Sentences

Animation vies with anomie; the human stick figures, casting no shadows, are dwarfed by bleak urban realities.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

In ‘The Shards,’ Ellis melds the horror of ‘American Psycho’ with the Sherman Oaks anomie of ‘Less Than Zero.’

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2025

In the U.S., car crash rates and pedestrian fatalities have recently erupted; potential culprits include “car bloat,” smartphones, COVID-related anomie, and the automatic transmission, which frees up motorists’ hands to, say, use TikTok.

From Slate • May 25, 2024

Perhaps this is what Sultan meant when he used the word “staged,” because he is asking his dad to play a formulaic role of late-middle-age anomie.

From New York Times • Mar. 9, 2023

She was there for your first crushes and heartbreaks, your party dresses and spins at sophisticated states like anomie.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides