iconoclasm

noun

icon·​o·​clasm ī-ˈkä-nə-ˌkla-zəm 

: the doctrine, practice, or attitude of an iconoclast

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The latest excursion into oddity and iconoclasm is the recount and audit of presidential ballots in Maricopa County, the state’s largest, in a vain search for proof that Joe Biden’s close but clear-cut Arizona victory over President Trump was a result of fraud. —Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2021

The author also dissects iconoclasm. —Jonathan Rose, WSJ, 7 June 2021

The Vatican ignored the attempt at iconoclasm. —Peter Weber, The Week, 3 Feb. 2022

Azeri officials deny charges of iconoclasm. —Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2020

For as long as humans have been making art, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have threatened their creations’ survival. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Dec. 2022

The way the author handles the seminal works of the field or how the arguments are built around theory or method can expose orthodoxy as well as iconoclasm or eclecticism in one’s approach... —Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 12 Oct. 2014

Holbein left Basel for London in 1532, likely impelled by a terror of rampaging iconoclasm—the wholesale destruction of religious imagery and artifacts by overenthusiastic Protestants in the Swiss city. —Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022

Over the course of human history, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have destroyed countless masterpieces. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Dec. 2021

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Word History

First Known Use

1797, in the meaning defined above