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
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This effort has a noble literary pedigree, incipient in Percy Shelley, gaining full steam with Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater, and continuing on through much of modernism (especially Wallace Stevens, about whom Critchley has written a book, Things Merely Are).
—Christian Wiman, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
After the war, Brazil became a magnet for émigré designers like Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, Martin Eisler, Carlo Hauner, Giuseppe Scapinelli, and Zanine Calda — all of whom fused European memory and heritage with tropical climate and craft, inventing a radical ecological modernism.
—Sofia Celeste, Footwear News, 18 Nov. 2025
Her story remains fractured—saint, prophet, brand, fabulist—but her status as one of modernism’s most disruptive figures is secure.
—Alice Gregory, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
As a co-founder of SCI-Arc and a key figure in Southern California modernism, his homes continue to set the standard for how light, space, and the outdoors can coexist, influencing generations of architects and shaping the region’s architectural identity.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 27 Oct. 2025
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Christian Wiman, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
After the war, Brazil became a magnet for émigré designers like Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, Martin Eisler, Carlo Hauner, Giuseppe Scapinelli, and Zanine Calda — all of whom fused European memory and heritage with tropical climate and craft, inventing a radical ecological modernism.
—Sofia Celeste, Footwear News, 18 Nov. 2025
Her story remains fractured—saint, prophet, brand, fabulist—but her status as one of modernism’s most disruptive figures is secure.
—Alice Gregory, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
As a co-founder of SCI-Arc and a key figure in Southern California modernism, his homes continue to set the standard for how light, space, and the outdoors can coexist, influencing generations of architects and shaping the region’s architectural identity.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 27 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for modernism
Cite this Entry
“Modernism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modernism. Accessed 28 Nov. 2025.
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