modernism
noun
mod·ern·ism
ˈmä-dər-ˌni-zəm 
1
: a practice, usage, or expression particular to the present time
… follows the rest of the [original] work more or less line by line, enlivening the language with modernisms and anachronisms of his own.—
Contemporary Authors
Contemporary Authors2
often Modernism
: a tendency in theology to accommodate traditional religious teaching to contemporary thought and especially to devalue supernatural elements
3
: modern artistic or literary philosophy and practice
especially
: a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression
… extols the … modernism that laid the foundation of all twentieth-century design. —Jeffrey Simpson
Jeffrey Simpson Examples of modernism in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Kline curates works from 1850 to 1960–Kline curates works from 1850 to 1960–the end of the 19th century to the end of modernism.
—Daily News, 24 Apr. 2026
Clearly, if Futurism’s innovations are key to the development of modernism, then the political and social contexts that Futurism emerged from, and the values of the regimes that enabled it, also manifest in modernism.
—Simon Denny, Artforum, 20 Apr. 2026
Their careers lasted from the early years of modernism through pop art of the 1960s and beyond.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 19 Apr. 2026
There are moments when the book, in defending Giacometti, seems to overburden his oeuvre with an exponential set of aesthetic, intellectual, and political problems, from resolving the tensions between modernism and the avant-garde to a singular working through of national trauma.
—Ara H. Merjian, ARTnews.com, 16 Apr. 2026
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Daily News, 24 Apr. 2026
Clearly, if Futurism’s innovations are key to the development of modernism, then the political and social contexts that Futurism emerged from, and the values of the regimes that enabled it, also manifest in modernism.
—Simon Denny, Artforum, 20 Apr. 2026
Their careers lasted from the early years of modernism through pop art of the 1960s and beyond.
—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 19 Apr. 2026
There are moments when the book, in defending Giacometti, seems to overburden his oeuvre with an exponential set of aesthetic, intellectual, and political problems, from resolving the tensions between modernism and the avant-garde to a singular working through of national trauma.
—Ara H. Merjian, ARTnews.com, 16 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for modernism
Cite this Entry
“Modernism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modernism. Accessed 27 Apr. 2026.
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