Word.ws English Dictionary

alienism

UK/ˈeɪ.lɪ.ən.ɪz.əm/

alienism noun: the fact or position of being an alien; alienage.

Noun (1)

alienism (usually uncountable, plural alienisms)

  1. (usually) The fact or position of being an alien; alienage.
  2. (usually) A foreignism, a word (or trait, etc) from another language (or country, etc).
    • The diction of the dialogue is essentially the same as that of the chorus, the slight difference being due to a little greater restriction in the use of alienisms in the former on account of the use of the iambic metre.1904, Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Charles William Emil Miller, Tenney Frank, Benjamin Dean Meritt, Harold Fredrik Cherniss, Henry Thompson Rowell, American Journal of Philology, page 305
    • Alienisms in Our Language.
      By the present we shall know the past.
      From the way European languages, notably English, are spreading among our people, we can imagine with what ease and eagerness our forefathers acclimatized the ...1972, Inazō Nitobe, The Works of Inazo Nitobe: Editorial jottings, 1930-1933

Noun (2)

alienism (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) The study or treatment of mental disorders; psychiatry.
    • 2016 Dr. Seward, Penny Dreadful s3e1, 32min
      Since I'm sure you're not familiar with alienism I'll tell you how it works.

alienism meaning in Tamil and Kannada

alienism in Tamil

உறப்பிறழ்ச்சி, உளநோய், அயன்மை, மனப்பிணி ஆஜ்ய்ச்சி, மனப்பிணி மருத்துவம்

alienism in Kannada

ಮನೋಬೇನೆ, ಬಗೆಬೇನೆ, ಮನೋಬೇನರಿಮೆ

Forms of alienism

pluralalienisms

Origin of alienism

From alien + -ism.

From French aliénisme, from aliéné in the meaning of "insane".

Questions about alienism

What does alienism mean?
Alienism means the fact or position of being an alien; alienage.
What is alienism in Tamil?
Alienism in Tamil is உறப்பிறழ்ச்சி, உளநோய், அயன்மை. See Alienism meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is alienism?
Alienism is a noun.
How do you pronounce alienism?
Alienism is pronounced /ˈeɪ.lɪ.ən.ɪz.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of alienism?
The plural of alienism is alienisms.

Words near alienism in the dictionary

  1. alienise
  2. alienised
  3. alienises
  4. alienish
  5. alienising
  6. alienism
  7. alienisms
  8. alienist
  9. alienists
  10. alienity
  11. alienization

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alienism (page history and authors); alienism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); alienism (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “alienism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alienism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.