phalanstery

P3H4A1L1A1N1S1T1E1R1Y4
US/ˈfælənˌstɜɹi/

noun

An association or community organized on the plan of Charles Fourier, with living space divided hierarchically and higher pay for those carrying out unpopular tasks.

Similar
phalangephalanstèrephalanx
Scrabble 19

Meanings

nounphalanstery (plural phalansteries)

plural phalansteries

  1. An association or community organized on the plan of Charles Fourier, with living space divided hierarchically and higher pay for those carrying out unpopular tasks.
    1 more example

    [S]he seemed to him a revelation of a class, and a multitude of socialistic figures, of names and episodes that he had heard of, grouped themselves behind her. She looked as if she had spent her life on platforms, in audiences, in conventions, in phalansteries, in séances; in her faded face there was a kind of reflection of ugly lecture-lamps; with its habit of an upward angle, it seemed turned toward a public speaker, with an effort of respiration in the thick air in which social reforms are usually discussed.

    1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC

    Synonyms: phalange, phalanstère, phalanx

  2. The dwelling house of a Fourierite community.
    1 more example

    2005, Andrew Loman, "Somewhat on the Community-System": Representations of Fourierism in the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page xxiv, When Hollingsworth and Priscilla retreat to a cottage at the end of the novel, they are spurning not only reformatories and phalansteries but also boarding-houses, tenements, and hotels.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAn association or community organized on the plan of Charles Fourier, with living space divided hierarchically and higher pay for those carrying out unpopular tasks.

Similar
phalangephalanstèrephalanx

Origin

  1. Frenchphalanstère
  2. Englishphalanstery

From French phalanstère.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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