Word.ws English Dictionary

aspheterism

Syllables: as·phe·ter·i·sm/əsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/US/æsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/

aspheterism noun: the view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.

Noun

aspheterism (uncountable)

  1. (dated, rare) The view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.
    • We preached Pantisocracy and Aspheterism everywhere. These, Tom, are two new words, the first signifying the equal government of all, and the other the generalisation of individual property; words well understood in the city of Bristol.Robert Southey ([1849?]), chapter III, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 75
    • In short he [Robert Southey] was always guided by his sympathies; and as he was never in his hottest days of Aspheterism anything like a consistent and reasoned Radical, so in his most rancorous days of reaction he never was a consistent and reasoned Tory.1895 March, “Robert Southey”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume LXXI, number 425, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 351
    Synonyms:
    communism

Synonyms of aspheterism

Origin of aspheterism

From Ancient Greek ᾰ̓- (ă-, the alpha privative, a suffix forming words having a sense opposite to the word or stem to which it is attached) + σφέτερος (sphéteros, “theirs, their own”) (from σφεῖς (spheîs, “they; themselves”) + -τερος (-teros, suffix forming adjectives expressing some notion of contrast)) + -ism, influenced by σφετερισμός (spheterismós, “usurpation”). The word was coined by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) in a 1794 letter to fellow poet Robert Southey (1774–1843).

Words formed from aspheterism

Words that rhyme with aspheterism

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about aspheterism

What does aspheterism mean?
Aspheterism means the view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.
What part of speech is aspheterism?
Aspheterism is a noun.
How do you pronounce aspheterism?
Aspheterism is pronounced /əsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/ (UK).

Words near aspheterism in the dictionary

  1. aspherize
  2. aspherized
  3. aspherizes
  4. aspherizing
  5. aspheterise
  6. aspheterism
  7. aspheterist
  8. aspheterists
  9. aspheterize
  10. aspheterized
  11. aspheterizes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aspheterism (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-aspheterism.wav.

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