Meanings
chartism1
- uncountablebusinessThe practices and methodologies of chartists.
Chartism2
plural Chartisms
- historicalA working-class movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century.
The dangers of this revolutionary ferment were grave; even in England Chartism was rampant—a sinister movement, which might at any moment upset the Constitution and abolish the Monarchy.
1921, Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria4 more examples
An insincere world; a godless untruth of a world! It is out of this, as I consider, that the whole tribe of social pestilences, French Revolutions, Chartisms, and what not, have derived their being,—their chief necessity to be.
1840 May 19, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 162[…] when she married the young clergyman, and went to settle in that smoky hole Turley; a very nest of Chartism and Atheism, in a part of the country which all the decent families had had to leave for years.
1857, [Thomas Hughes], chapter II, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLCChartism therefore, though a genuine popular movement, was incomplete in its aims and knowledge; the time was not yet come and it could not triumph openly; but it would be a mistake to say that it failed utterly: […]
1888, William Morris, Signs of Change […] , London: Reeves and Turner, page 103When Owenism and Chartism had burned themselves out, England had become poorer by that substance out of which the Anglo-Saxon ideal of a free society could have been built up for centuries to come.
1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 167
Origin
Chartism · proper noun
From chart(er) + -ism, named after the People's Charter of 1838, laying out the movement's six main aims.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic مِيثَاقِيَة
- مِيثَاقِيَة (mīṯāqiya)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Basque kartismo
- kartismoa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Catalan cartisme
- cartismea movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Czech chartisté
- chartistéa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Dutch chartisme
- chartismea movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Esperanto Ĉartismo
- Ĉartismoa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Finnish chartismi
- chartismia movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
French chartisme
- chartismea movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
German Chartismus
- Chartismusa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Greek χαρτισμός
- χαρτισμός (chartismós)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Italian cartismo
- cartismoa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Japanese チャーティズム
- チャーティズム (chātizumu)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Korean 차티즘
- 차티즘 (chatijeum)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Polish czartyzm
- czartyzma movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Portuguese cartismo
- cartismoa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Russian чарти́зм
- чарти́зм (čartízm)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Spanish cartismo
- cartismoa movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Swedish chartism
- chartisma movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Turkish çartizm
- çartizma movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Ukrainian чарти́зм
- чарти́зм (čartýzm)a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Welsh Siartiaeth
- Siartiaetha movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century
Cite this entry
chartism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chartism
“chartism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chartism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chartism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chartism.
Source: chartism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.