as in term
a way of saying something that is particular to the present day; a modern speech form
modernisms like "blog" and "life hack"
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Recent Examples of modernism
That may be why the dominant strains in American modernism (at least until the mid-twentieth century, when the sublime reappeared in the work of the Abstract Expressionists) cleaved to the factual, the intimate, the proximate.
—
Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
The property preserves a certain Bay Area idea of modernism rooted in landscape, not dominating it.
—David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 28 Apr. 2026
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
See All Example Sentences for modernism
Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
The property preserves a certain Bay Area idea of modernism rooted in landscape, not dominating it.
—David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 28 Apr. 2026
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
See All Example Sentences for modernism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for modernism
Noun
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Venezuela and the Caribbean nation — who in the 1990s signed a delimitation treaty establishing the terms for exploiting any hydrocarbon deposits on both sides of the border strip — share the Gulf of Paria, an inland sea at Venezuela’s westernmost end and south of the island of Trinidad.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
11 May 2026
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Today, Rikers incarcerates approximately sixty-seven hundred people—most of whom are in pretrial detention, others who are serving terms of less than a year—in facilities that are within New York City while also being out of sight and largely out of reach.—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
Noun
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Are these neologisms diagnosing modern phenomena or illuminating preëxisting cultural realities?—
Brady Brickner-Wood,
New Yorker,
2 Dec. 2025
-
These neologisms weren’t just clever.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The exhibit’s title is derived from a Spanish colloquialism.—
Uwa Ede-Osifo,
Dallas Morning News,
13 Feb. 2026
-
Ways to learn a new language Apps are a good way to learn the basics and proper pronunciation, but many colloquialisms, abbreviations and grammatically informal expressions used by fluent or native speakers aren’t taught on apps or in language classes.—
Cody Godwin,
USA Today,
12 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The phrase actually originates from a speech by 19th-century Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) leader Charles Stewart Parnell.—
Angela Andaloro,
PEOPLE,
14 May 2026
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Wright’s approach to the saxophone is often cubist in nature, reducing the music to isolated phrases and sounds and then battering them from every conceivable angle.—
Levi Dayan,
Pitchfork,
11 May 2026
Noun
-
Special military operation is Russia’s official euphemism for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
30 Apr. 2026
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Discussing why people use euphemisms online prepares children to pause and ask questions when unfamiliar terms appear.—
Sharlette A. Kellum,
The Conversation,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The author, a professor named Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, proved to have a knack not just for provocative legal essays but for coinages, too.—
Kelefa Sanneh,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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People have been called pedants since the early modern period—pedante is a fifteenth-century Italian coinage for a professional teacher of Latin literature and rhetoric—but have been acting pedantically for millennia.—
Clare Bucknell,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Jonathan Karis, an alumnus of Gramercy Tavern, takes the season’s bounty and coaxes it into its fullest expression — home cooking at its most virtuosic.—
Ligaya Mishan,
New York Times,
11 May 2026
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The Pisces Moon supports thoughtful expression and easier communication.—
Tarot.com,
New York Daily News,
10 May 2026
Noun
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Which brings us to the ménage à trois — for some things, only a French loanword will do — between Hayley, Yasmin, and Henry, which exists at the opposite end of the boundary-setting spectrum.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
26 Jan. 2026
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For instance, people, a French loanword, may be spelled peple, pepill, poeple, or poepul.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
10 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Modernism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/modernism. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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