Word.ws English Dictionary

bystanderism

bystanderism noun: the tendency to observe a situation without getting involved.

Noun

bystanderism (uncountable)

  1. The tendency to observe a situation without getting involved.
    • Bystanderism is the response of people who observe something and do not get involved. Understanding bystanderism is a useful conceptual tool in critical pedagogy.2006, Suzanne SooHoo, Talking Leaves: Narratives of Otherness, page 190

Origin of bystanderism

bystander + -ism

Questions about bystanderism

What does bystanderism mean?
Bystanderism means the tendency to observe a situation without getting involved.
What part of speech is bystanderism?
Bystanderism is a noun.

Words near bystanderism in the dictionary

  1. byssuses
  2. bystander
  3. bystander effect
  4. bystander effects
  5. bystanderish
  6. bystanderism
  7. bystanders
  8. bystandership
  9. bystanding
  10. bystreet
  11. bystreets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bystanderism (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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