Word.ws English Dictionary

barbarisms

barbarisms is the plural of barbarism.

Meaning of barbarism

Noun

barbarism (countable and uncountable, plural barbarisms)

  1. A barbaric act.
    • These barbarisms can not be allowed to continue; they must be crushed or civilization will collapse.
  2. The condition of existing barbarically.
    • Like dancing, it is a remnant of ancient barbarism—fit for the days of the Chaldeans or the Babylonians, when people were only amused through their eyes—the sole entertainment of which savage nations are susceptible.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 42–43
    Synonyms:
    barbarianism
  3. A word hybridizing Ancient Greek and Latin or other heterogeneous roots.
  4. An error in language use within a single word, such as a mispronunciation.
    • In the jargon of the ancient grammarian, penacilin would be a barbarism.2002, Hyman, Bad Grammar in Context, New England Classical Journal, 29, p. 94-101

Questions about barbarisms

What is barbarisms the plural of?
Barbarisms is the plural of barbarism.

Words near barbarisms in the dictionary

  1. barbarise
  2. barbarised
  3. barbarises
  4. barbarising
  5. barbarism
  6. barbarisms
  7. barbarities
  8. barbarity
  9. barbarization
  10. barbarizations
  11. barbarize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barbarisms (page history and authors); barbarism (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: “barbarisms.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barbarisms. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.