carnism

C3A1R1N1I1S1M3

noun

The human ideology that supports the slaughter of certain animals and the consumption of their meat or other products (leather from skin, etc).

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nouncarnism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe human ideology that supports the slaughter of certain animals and the consumption of their meat or other products (leather from skin, etc).
    2 more examples

    Mass terms like “meat,” “hamburger,” and “leather” used instead of “dead animal,” “cow,” or “skin” encourage consumers to forget that they are eating or using a dead animal. ... The commercial influence of a pervasive and legalized meat industry is strong, which may account for why speciesism and the ideology of carnism are cultural values that Freeman found national news tends to impose on audiences, naturalizing and legitimizing the exploitation of farmed animals.

    2012, Joshua Frye, Michael Bruner, The Rhetoric of Food: Discourse, Materiality, and Power, →ISBN, page 107

    Francophobia and anti-popery were coupled with and then merged into this ideology of carnism. As Hogarth historian Jenny Uglow writes: '[t]he oozing red meat, the feasts and freedoms— like the wearing of leather shoes instead of wooden clogs—set the English against the feeble, starving peasants of the Continent'.

    2018, Piers Beirne, Murdering Animals, →ISBN, page 143

    Antonyms: vegetarianism, veganism

  2. uncountableThe practice of eating animal meat or using animal products (leather, etc).

    Now we need a universal consensus about standards of decency toward ecosystems, individuals from other species, and Earth. We cannot do this unless we end carnism.

    2013, Will Anderson, This Is Hope: Green Vegans and the New Human Ecology
    1 more example

    So violent systems such as carnism need to use a set of psychological and social defense mechanisms so that humane people participate in inhumane practices without fully realizing what they are doing. The primary defense of carnism is […]

    2014, Julieanna Hever, The Vegiterranean Diet: The New and Improved Mediterranean Diet

    Antonyms: vegetarianism, veganism

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe human ideology that supports the slaughter of certain animals and the consumption of their meat or other products (leather from skin, etc).

nounThe practice of eating animal meat or using animal products (leather, etc).

Origin

From the Latin root carnis (“flesh, meat”), + -ism. Coined by American psychologist Melanie Joy as an antonym of vegetarianism.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

German Karnismus
  • KarnismusTranslations
Spanish carnismo
  • carnismoTranslations

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

carnism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carnism

MLA

“carnism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carnism. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “carnism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carnism.

Source: carnism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.