Word.ws English Dictionary

cakeism

/ˈkeɪkɪzəm/

cakeism noun: the doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too, particularly regarding the UK’s approach to Brexit negotiations and subsequent deliberations.

Noun

cakeism (uncountable)

  1. (UK) The doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too, particularly regarding the UK’s approach to Brexit negotiations and subsequent deliberations.
    • What is now known as “cakeism” – the idea that the UK can have everything it wants merely because it wants it – is becoming, like climate-change denial, the subject of rational discussion.2017, The New European, "The delusions of Cakeism", Bonnie Greer, 15 September 2017
    • The letter is the latest blatant example of British cakeism.2018, The Guardian, "David Davis's petulant leaked letter is the latest slice of Brexit cakeism", Jonathan Lis, 10 January 2018

Examples of cakeism in a sentence

  • The government has adopted Johnson's notorious attitude to cake – wanting to have it and to eat it – and made cakeism its defining creed.2021, The Guardian, "The dishonesty of Boris Johnson has finally infected the entire government", Jonathan Freedland, 19 November 2021
  • Cakeism is not a formula that works in government because, in reality, the cake has to be rationed and people notice.2021, The Guardian, "The Tories said we could have our cake and eat it – now they are stuffed and voters are hungry", Rafael Behr, 22...
  • "Cakeism" has run riot — vast, incoherent ambitions detached from political, economic and business realities.2022, The Guardian, "Brexit legacy is just the start of incoming PM's problems as cost of living crisis spirals", Will Hutton, 10 July 2022

Origin of cakeism

From cake + -ism, referring to have one's cake and eat it too.

Questions about cakeism

What does cakeism mean?
Cakeism means the doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too, particularly regarding the UK’s approach to Brexit negotiations and subsequent deliberations.
How do you use cakeism in a sentence?
The government has adopted Johnson's notorious attitude to cake – wanting to have it and to eat it – and made cakeism its defining creed.
What part of speech is cakeism?
Cakeism is a noun.
How do you pronounce cakeism?
Cakeism is pronounced /ˈkeɪkɪzəm/.

Words near cakeism in the dictionary

  1. cakefuls
  2. cakehole
  3. cakeholes
  4. cakehouse
  5. cakehouses
  6. cakeism
  7. cakeist
  8. cakeists
  9. cakeless
  10. cakelessness
  11. cakelet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cakeism (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.

Last updated:

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