aspirationalism
/ˌæs.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃə.nəl.ɪz.əm/
aspirationalism noun: the philosophy or practice of striving to better one's situation in life, especially economically and materially.
Noun
aspirationalism (uncountable)
- The philosophy or practice of striving to better one's situation in life, especially economically and materially.
- We think of America as a familiar place, yet it is in so many ways as incomprehensible to outsiders as it has always been. The boundless aspirationalism even among its most marginalised people is one of its most striking and perplexing anachronisms.2010 July 13, Mary O'Hara, “It's the people who provide a real insight into US politics”, in The Guardian
- "The late '90s had a focus on aspirationalism - more, better, bigger, faster, the McMansion and the huge flat-screen TV," he says.2011 April 13, “Profile: Mark McCrindle”, in The Sydney Morning Herald
Origin of aspirationalism
From aspirational + -ism.
Questions about aspirationalism
- What does aspirationalism mean?
- Aspirationalism means the philosophy or practice of striving to better one's situation in life, especially economically and materially.
- What part of speech is aspirationalism?
- Aspirationalism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce aspirationalism?
- Aspirationalism is pronounced /ˌæs.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃə.nəl.ɪz.əm/.
Words near aspirationalism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aspirationalism (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: Aspirationalism US.ogg.
Cite this entry: “aspirationalism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aspirationalism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.