as in idiocy
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Recent Examples of philistinism
Despite such official philistinism, Proust had already left an enduring mark on Irish letters and would remain a source of literary inspiration for the nation’s writers into the twenty-first century.
—
Literary Hub, 2 Feb. 2026
Literary Hub, 2 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for philistinism
Noun
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That’s the level of idiocy in the Los Angeles city government.—
Susan Shelley,
Daily News,
13 May 2026
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The idiocy of these people knows no bounds.—
Austin Perry OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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When Constanze reaches her breaking point, Mozart’s imbecility is exposed as fragility.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Unlike its sibling concepts of dumbness and idiocy, stupidity isn’t really a personality trait.—
Jonny Thomson,
Big Think,
11 Feb. 2026
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Compare that to punk rock, which used dumbness as a tactic.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
14 Aug. 2025
Noun
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And not just because one of the leading contestants torched himself and his political livelihood in a bonfire of hubris and stupidity.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
10 May 2026
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That men like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are entrusted with businesses of tectonic influence can be difficult to understand, but their cults of personality have been able to survive scrutiny, perhaps because the money itself is too imposing a firewall for their own stupidity to penetrate.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
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There’s the White House and its malicious megaphone of mindlessness; the generative AI advocates and their pushy, pathetic ploys; the Major League Baseball owners and their dedication to self-destruction.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
20 Feb. 2026
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The show’s real villain is mindlessness, in other words.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
5 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Philistinism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/philistinism. Accessed 17 May. 2026.
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