barbarism

noun

bar·​ba·​rism ˈbär-bə-ˌri-zəm 

1

a

: a barbarian or barbarous social or intellectual condition : backwardness

b

: the practice or display of barbarian acts, attitudes, or ideas

2

: an idea, act, or expression that in form or use offends against contemporary standards of good taste or acceptability

Examples of barbarism in a Sentence

The barbarism of his dictatorship cannot be ignored.

Such barbarisms cannot be tolerated.

Recent Examples on the Web

This barbarism is why countries and territories continue to ban them, stores are discontinuing their sales and various entities no longer use them. —Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 14 July 2024

Some of our most celebrated modern shows are full of barbarism and continual bloodshed. —Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 17 June 2024

Convict leasing, also called peonage, juxtaposed the infrastructure of the Old English debtor’s prison with the barbarism of chattel slavery to bolster American capitalism. —Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024

Holland reminds us that the machinery of mass barbarism depends on such individual acts of complicity and betrayal. —Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 22 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

barbarism

noun

bar·​ba·​rism ˈbär-bə-ˌriz-əm 

: the state, ideas, or behavior of a barbarian