anti-modernist

adjective

an·​ti-mod·​ern·​ist

ˌan-tē-ˈmä-dər-nist,

ˌan-tī- 

variants or less commonly antimodernist

: opposed to the values of modernism or modernity

… mixture of nativist ideology, anti-modernist sentiment, political isolationism, and frankly stated racialism …

—Hilton Kramer

Prohibition, like nativism and antisemitism, tapped into deeply rooted antimodernist trends in American life; it attempted to turn back the cultural clock …

—Jonathan D. Sarna

anti-modernist noun

or less commonly antimodernist

The antimodernists prevailed, perhaps fortunately, given the deplorable standards of new French architecture.

—Gerald Clarke

anti-modernism noun

or less commonly antimodernism

ˌan-tē-ˈmä-dər-ni-zəm,

ˌan-tī- 

This left-wing anti-modernism is interesting or not, depending on your point of view.

—Stephen Holmes

Rather than assume the postmodern position, he has been willing to take up a very sophisticated stance of antimodernism.

—Thomas Bender

Examples of anti-modernist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The priestly fraternity, named in honor of the anti-modernist Pope St. Pius X, was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as a response to liturgical reforms made in the Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II). —Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 14 Aug. 2025

Due to the anti-modernist policy after the 1930s, scores of paintings were confiscated from museums and institutions and put in special secret repositories, and the idea was to destroy all of them. —George Nelson, ARTnews.com, 15 July 2024

These moves have all weakened the Catholic anti-modernist project. —R. R. Reno, Foreign Affairs, 13 Nov. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1859, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for anti-modernist

• modernist
• postmodernist