minimalism

noun min·i·mal·ism \ ˈmi-nə-mə-ˌli-zəm \

|Updated on: 8 Jun 2018

Definition of minimalism

1 : a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity

2 : minimal art

Recent Examples of minimalism from the Web

The company stands for minimalism; a distraction-free interface fits well with the Apple ethos.

— arielle pardes, WIRED, "Tech Addiction and the Paradox of Apple's 'Screen Time' Tools," 5 June 2018
Sharing a love of minimalism, Messrs. Sergiovanni and Satek kept the stuff to a minimum, and used white for much of the furniture, setting off the views of the woods.

— leigh kamping-carder, WSJ, "An Art-Centered Hamptons Home," 2 May 2018
Contemporary furniture, particularly that which echoes the mid-century styles made popular on Mad Men, lends itself well to the kind of curated minimalism that garners the most likes on social media.

— sean santiago, ELLE Decor, "I May Be A Millennial, But I Don't Decorate Like One," 25 Jan. 2016
Atmospheric shots of treetops waving against a gray sky; blue light and bunker minimalism; hazmat suits and deadly lakes—the environment of The Rain is a gorgeous poem.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Something Is Damp in the State of Denmark," 11 May 2018
Tellingly, Bush got most of the influence for her idiosyncratic dance routine from English mime artist Lindsay Kamp, which explains this pair of videos’ ahead-of-their-time minimalism in an era of tacky sci-fi imagery and fog machines.

— morgan enos, Billboard, "Before Taylor Swift's 'Delicate,' These 10 Songs Had More Than One Music Video," 30 Mar. 2018
Takada is an imaginative Japanese percussionist whose work in the 80s and 90s gracefully dissolved lines between free jazz, minimalism, and new age.

— peter margasak, Chicago Reader, "Japanese percussionist Midori Takada basks in rediscovery with hypnotic and pummeling music," 3 May 2018
Traces of hard-edge abstraction and minimalism, conceptual art, feminist art, identity politics, new media and even performance place Pindell in sync with her times, occasionally ahead of them.

— lori waxman, chicagotribune.com, "The diverse, dizzying majesty of Howardena Pindell," 25 Apr. 2018
The leather wallets emphasize simplicity and minimalism and models like the Hide & Seek, going for $73, down from $90, can make a subtle statement.

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Today's Best Deals: Keep Cool With $100 Off Frigidaire's Smart Window A/C," 20 Apr. 2018

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

Did You Know?

In the 1960s, a few composers, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams, began writing music inspired by the music of India and Southeast Asia, often with a quick pulsing beat and chords that are repeated quickly over and over while small changes are slowly introduced. Minimalist art, which began appearing around the same time, tries to strip away all personal elements, often leaving only pure geometric forms; you may have seen the plain silver boxes of Donald Judd, or the straight neon tubes of Bruce Nauman. In literature, the stripped-down fiction of Samuel Beckett and Raymond Carver is often considered minimalist. But there's a real question whether these various types of minimalism should even be considered the same concept.