Meanings
- uncountableA pessimistic belief that things are in decline.
Scholars point out that strains of declinism can be found in most eras of history, which raises the question, is it logically possible for the world to be going to hell interminably — to be endlessly on its way to hell, ever worse than before, and ever better at each earlier epoch?
4 more examples
Laudably, he [Cullen Murphy] ends on some optimistic notes, and some prescriptions, rather than wallowing in declinism.
2007 May 13, Walter Isaacson, “The Empire in the Mirror”, in New York TimesSo maybe declinism is just a quirk of human psychology.
2015 January 16, Pete Etchells, “Declinism: is the world actually getting worse?”, in The GuardianInstead, declinism ruled—the belief that Britain was in a state of terminal, irreversible decline being widely shared, and—as glam has demonstrated—frequently and forcibly expressed.
2018, Simon Philo, Glam Rock: Music in Sound and Vision, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 104The chancellor came to Bloomberg’s HQ in the City of London on Friday seeking to raise the country’s spirits, hail the split with Brussels and dispel the “declinism” he says saps Britain’s energy.
2023 January 27, Phillip Inman, quoting Jeremy Hunt, “Jeremy Hunt overdoes the Es: why his economic plan is a letdown”, in the GuardianAntonyms: optimism
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA pessimistic belief that things are in decline.
Origin
Cite this entry
declinism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/declinism
“declinism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/declinism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “declinism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/declinism.
Source: declinism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.