-ism

plural -isms

1. countableuncountableUsed to form nouns of action, process, or result based on the accompanying verb ending in -ise or -ize.

   baptism (1300), aphorism (1528), criticism (1607), magnetism (1616)

2. countableuncountableUsed to form the name of a school of thought, system, or theory based on the name of its subject or object or alternatively on the name of its founder (When de-capitalized, these overlap with the generic "doctrines" sense below, e.g. Liberalism vs. liberalism.)

   Lutheranism (1560), Calvinism (1570), Protestantism (1606), Congregationalism (1716), Mohammedanism (1815),: Palamism (1949)

3. countableuncountableUsed to form names of a tendency of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to a class or group of persons, or the result of a doctrine, ideology, or principle or lack thereof.

   WE ARE EXPERIENCING BROADCAST NOOBISM

   2020, Ministry of Broadcast, Hitcents, Nintendo Switch, scene: game over

   3 more examples

   atheism (1587), ruffianism (1589), giantism (1639), fanaticism (1652), theism (1678), religionism (1706), patriotism (1716), heroism (1717), despotism (1728), old-maidism (1776), capitalism (1792), nationism (1798), romanticism (1803), conservatism (1832), sexualism (1842), vegetarianism (1848), externalism (1856), young-ladyism (1869), opportunism (1870), blackguardism (1875), jingoism (1878), feminism (1895), dwarfism (1895)

   Howard didn't care much for beer, but that night he helped himself to three cans of Vi's new find nevertheless. Vi commented on it, said that if she had known he was going to like it that much, she would have stopped by the drugstore and gotten him an IV hookup. Another time-honored Vi-ism.

   1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger

   “Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker,” he wrote Tuesday.

   2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, quoting Mike Pompeo, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN

4. countableuncountableUsed to form countable nouns indicating a peculiarity or characteristic of language

   Atticism (1612), Gallicism (1656), archaism (1709), Americanism (1781), colloquialism (1834), newspaperism (1838), Shakespearianism (1886)

   1 more example

   Note that these sayings attributed to Yogi Berra might be apocryphal […] These sayings remain, however, quintessential Berraisms.

   2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 136

5. countableuncountableUsed to form names of ideologies expressing belief in the superiority of a certain class within the concept expressed by the root word, or a pattern of behavior or a social norm that benefits members of the group indicated by the root word. (Based on a late 20th-century narrowing of the "terms for a doctrine" sense.)

   racism (1932), sexism (1936), classism (1971), speciesism (1975), heterosexism (1979), ableism (1981)

6. countableuncountablemedicineUsed to form names of conditions (syndromes, diseases, disorders, defects, addictions) and therapeutical methods or doctrines.

   aleydigism, daturism, senilism, teratism, cocainism, climatism, humorism

plural -isms

1. alternativeAlternative form of ism (“ideology or form of discrimination ending in -ism”)

   “Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is. They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker,” he wrote Tuesday.

   2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, Nicole Gaouette, quoting Mike Pompeo, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2022

   1 more example

   YouTube comments are rough. They dabble in all forms of trolling, bullying, racism, sexism and other offensive -isms, interspersed with endless spurts of nonsensical chatter. Any thoughtful comments are typically lost in a roiling sea of “LOLs,” insults and spam.

   2013 September 24, Heather Kelly, “YouTube tries to fix its comments”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2016