Word.ws English Dictionary

cynism

UK/ˈsɪnɪzm/

cynism noun: cynicism.

Noun

cynism (usually uncountable, plural cynisms)

  1. (usually) cynicism

Forms of cynism

pluralcynisms

Origin of cynism

From French cynisme, from Late Latin cynismus, from Ancient Greek κυνισμός (kunismós, “philosophy of the Cynics”), from κυν- (kun-), stem of κύων (kúōn, “dog”, “Cynic”); compare cynicism.

Questions about cynism

What does cynism mean?
Cynism means cynicism.
What part of speech is cynism?
Cynism is a noun.
How do you pronounce cynism?
Cynism is pronounced /ˈsɪnɪzm/ (UK).
What is the plural of cynism?
The plural of cynism is cynisms.

Words near cynism in the dictionary

  1. cynings
  2. cynipid
  3. cynipids
  4. cynipoid
  5. cynipoids
  6. cynism
  7. cynisms
  8. cyno-
  9. cynocannoside
  10. cynocephali
  11. cynocephalic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cynism (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: “cynism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cynism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.