Meanings
alternative de-Ba'thification · alternative de-Baʻthification · alternative de-Ba'athification · alternative deba'athification · alternative de-Bathification · alternative debathification
- uncountableThe policy of removing Baath party members from Iraqi government positions following the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Mr Maliki has worsened the situation by allowing and encouraging purges of Iraqi politicians in the name of de-Baathification and largely discontinuing the US-initiated policy of working with Sunni tribal leaders and their militias - the so-called Sons of Iraq - to isolate al-Qaeda.
2014 January 4, Marina Ottaway, “Analysis: Anbar violence goes beyond sectarian conflict in Iraq”, in BBC News1 more example
From informing the Bush administration that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with flowers to urging a methodical and comprehensive de-Baathification program under which tens of thousands of people lost their jobs through guilt by association, she said, the errors in the exiles' counsel only mounted and multiplied.
2006, Anthony Shadid, Night draws near: Iraq's people in the shadow of America's war, page 322
Origin
From de- + Baath + -ification. Modeled on denazification, a similar concept employed against the conquered Nazi government following the Second World War.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with de-Baathification
Cite this entry
de-Baathification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de-Baathification
“de-Baathification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de-Baathification. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “de-Baathification,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de-Baathification.
Source: de-Baathification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.