Definition of LIBERTINISM

Examples of libertinism in a Sentence

a group of urban bohemians who were better known for their libertinism than for their intellectualism even by the standards of ancient Rome, Caligula's reign was marked by a libertinism that went beyond the pale

Recent Examples on the Web Sade, after all, viewed himself not just as a libertine, but as a philosopher of libertinism (one of his works was titled Philosophy in the Boudoir). — Mitchell Abidor, The New York Review of Books, "Reading Sade in the Age of Epstein," 12 Feb. 2020 Long before Christ, the same idea was shared by the European Renaissance, Sophocles, Themistocles, Socrates, Mozart, and Goethe, the quest for a refinement of emotion and libertinism. — Bohumil Hrabal, Harper's magazine, "Protocol or: A Contribution on the Renaissance as Compiled Jointly with My Uncle Josef," 25 Nov. 2019 Others, following Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, aim to make a virtue of Trump’s libertinism and cruelty, comparing him to Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, who is said to have paved the way for the Jewish exodus. — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, "ChurchToo and Mike Pence’s Crisis of Faith," 21 June 2018 Yet Will’s own moment of libertinism is destined to pass into history at much the same time as Nantwich’s. — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, "A Novel of Sex and Secrecy," 10 Oct. 2011 Others, following Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, aim to make a virtue of Trump’s libertinism and cruelty, comparing him to Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, who is said to have paved the way for the Jewish exodus. — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, "ChurchToo and Mike Pence’s Crisis of Faith," 21 June 2018 Yet Will’s own moment of libertinism is destined to pass into history at much the same time as Nantwich’s. — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, "A Novel of Sex and Secrecy," 10 Oct. 2011 Christian liberty of this kind provided no excuse for libertinism. — Joseph Loconte, WSJ, "How Martin Luther Advanced Freedom," 26 Oct. 2017 If your culture’s code is libertine, don’t be surprised that worse things than libertinism flourish. — Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, "One Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood, Another in the White House," 10 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'libertinism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.