Toynbee
Americannoun
noun
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Arnold 1852–83, British economist and social reformer, after whom Toynbee Hall , a residential settlement in East London, is named
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his nephew, Arnold Joseph . 1889–1975, British historian. In his chief work, A Study of History (1934–61), he attempted to analyse the principles determining the rise and fall of civilizations
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.
The British historian Arnold Toynbee saw the Industrial Revolution as “a period as disastrous and terrible as any through which a nation ever passed.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025
Ikeda was a prolific writer, publishing a number of books on Buddhism, dialogues with intellectuals such as British historian Arnold Toynbee, and a 12-volume novel “Human Revolution”.
From Reuters • Nov. 18, 2023
“My family’s experienced over 30 years of missed birthdays, holidays, all that stuff,” Toynbee said.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 26, 2023
His solution was also borrowed from Toynbee: the notion of the “creative minority” — small groups of nonconformists with the capacity to reinvigorate an entire culture.
From New York Times • Dec. 31, 2022
Hence Toynbee did not pose Yali’s question, nor did he come to grips with what I see as history’s broadest pattern.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
