possessionism

P3O1S1S1E1S1S1I1O1N1I1S1M3

noun

The tendency to expand one's ownership of property without regard for its ethical implications.

Scrabble 17
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Meanings

nounpossessionism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe tendency to expand one's ownership of property without regard for its ethical implications.

    They're always viewed in relation to American suburbanism, possessionism, commodityism, or copism.

    2009, Manny Farber, Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, page 370
    3 more examples

    The Pastorals are defending Pauline incarnational christology against Jewish Christian myths justifying possessionism

    1995, M. D. Goulder, St. Paul Versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions, page 119

    Possessionism in wreck diving regard can be characterized generally as the compulsive collection of artifacts

    1998, Gary Gentile, The Lusitania Controversies: Atrocity of War and a Wreck-Diving History, page 222

    […] racial theories and the unprecedented increase in colonial expansionism and territorial possessionism, as exemplified by Britain's “imperial century,” […]

    2014, John Ernest, The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative

Origin

From possession + -ism.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

possessionism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionism

MLA

“possessionism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionism. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “possessionism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/possessionism.

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