Malthusianism

[ (mal-thooh-zhuh-niz-uhm, mal-thooh-zee-uh-niz-uhm) ]


A pessimistic viewpoint on population and world resources, based on the doctrines of Thomas Malthus. Malthusianism holds that population tends to increase faster than the supply of food, thus preventing the steady progress of mankind. Malthus advocated premarital chastity, late marriage, and sexual abstinence as partial solutions.

Words Nearby Malthusianism

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use Malthusianism in a sentence