SOCIALISM Synonyms: 11 Similar and Opposite Words

socialism

noun

as in liberalism

a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies an ardent opponent of socialism

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of socialism An Axios/Generation Lab poll conducted days before the mayoral election found that 67 percent of college students held a positive or neutral view of socialism; only 40 percent said the same about capitalism. —

Neetu Arnold, Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2026 In September, the university fired Professor Thomas Alter after his remarks at a revolutionary socialism conference garnered negative attention from conservative critics. —

Lily Kepner, Austin American Statesman, 9 Feb. 2026 Here in the United States over the past 70 years, the logic of socialism has been implemented in the form of solutions aimed at addressing our social problems, at the cost to taxpayers of trillions of dollars. —

William Z. Fox, Baltimore Sun, 19 Jan. 2026 Sanders had boned up on socialism during his freshman year at Brooklyn College. —

Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for socialism

Recent Examples of Synonyms for socialism

liberalism

Noun

Randall accused him of a feel-good liberalism that ignores deeper racial and class reckonings that South Bend (a city that is just barely half white) has coming.

— Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2026
During Vargas Llosa’s lifetime, his political beliefs underwent extreme changes, from supporting Castro’s revolutionary Communism to championing traditional European liberalism, which included an adamantine belief in unregulated markets.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Feb. 2026