Meanings
plural groupthinks · alternative group-think
- countableuncountableA process of reasoning or decision-making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance of or conformity to a perceived majority view.
A militant group-think seized hold of the ministry.
2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 3953 more examples
At present we do not know what percentage of all national fiascoes are attributable to groupthink. Some decisions of poor quality that turn out to be fiascoes might be ascribed primarily to mistakes made by just one man, the Chief Executive. Others arise because of a faulty policy formulated by a group of executives whose decision‐making procedures were impaired by errors having little or nothing to do with groupthink.
1973 May 28, Irving L. Janis, “Groupthink in Washington”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2021This gang-bang speaks more to journalistic groupthink than to any real moral or legal reasoning.
2005 July 12, Jacob Weisberg, “The Anonymity Trap”, in Slate, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2021Anyone who works for a news organization (or any large corporation, for that matter) can weave tales of woe around all the planning, brainstorming, off-site retreats and other groupthinks that led nowhere.
2011, Mark Briggs, Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build What's Next for News, CQ Press, →ISBN, page 129Synonyms: group-thinking, herdthink
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA process of reasoning or decision-making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance of or conformity to a perceived majority view.
Origin
Coined by William H. Whyte in 1952, from group + think, modelled on earlier doublethink from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan pensament de grup
- pensament de gruptendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Chinese Mandarin 群体思维
- 群体思维tendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Finnish laumasieluisuus
- laumasieluisuustendency of a group to conform to the majority view
French pensée de groupe
- pensée de groupetendency of a group to conform to the majority view
German Gruppendenken
- Gruppendenkentendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Hungarian csoportgondolkodás
- csoportgondolkodástendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Italian pensiero di gruppo
- pensiero di gruppotendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Norwegian Bokmål gruppetenking, gruppetenkning
- gruppetenkingtendency of a group to conform to the majority view
- gruppetenkningtendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Polish myślenie grupowe
- myślenie grupowetendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Portuguese pensamento de grupo
- pensamento de grupotendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Russian группово́е мышле́ние
- группово́е мышле́ние (gruppovóje myšlénije)tendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Spanish pensamiento de grupo
- pensamiento de grupotendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Swedish grupptänkande, grupptänk
- grupptänkandetendency of a group to conform to the majority view
- grupptänktendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Ukrainian групове́ ми́слення
- групове́ ми́слення (hrupové mýslennja)tendency of a group to conform to the majority view
Cite this entry
groupthink. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/groupthink
“groupthink.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/groupthink. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “groupthink,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/groupthink.
Source: groupthink on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.