barbarism
Americannoun
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a barbarous or uncivilized state or condition.
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a barbarous act; something belonging to or befitting a barbarous condition.
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the use in a language of forms or constructions felt by some to be undesirably alien to the established standards of the language.
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such a form or construction.
Some people consider “complected” as a barbarism.
noun
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a brutal, coarse, or ignorant act
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the condition of being backward, coarse, or ignorant
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a substandard or erroneously constructed or derived word or expression; solecism
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any act or object that offends against accepted taste
Other Word Forms
- hyperbarbarism noun
Etymology
Origin of barbarism
1570–80; < Latin barbarismus < Greek barbarismós foreign way of speaking. See barbarous, -ism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When World War I arrived, Galsworthy—like many humane Europeans of his generation who had believed that mass barbarism was becoming a thing of the past—was shattered.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
The Human Rights Commission of the Rio state legislature will demand "explanations" of how the favela was turned into a "theater of war and barbarism," commission head Dani Monteiro told AFP on Tuesday.
From Barron's • Oct. 29, 2025
It was taken in 1863 and reproduced across the North during the Civil War as an example of the barbarism of slavery.
From Slate • Sep. 24, 2025
Within weeks, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” was on public display, boosting global revulsion at such barbarism.
From Salon • Sep. 8, 2025
An enraged President Reagan called the downing of Korean Airlines flight 007 "an act of barbarism."
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
