Word.ws English Dictionary

defaultism

UK/dɪˈfɒl.tɪ.zəm/US/dɪˈfɔl.tɪ.zəm/

defaultism noun: an approach or situation in which something occurs by default, without being explicitly introduced.

Noun

defaultism (uncountable)

  1. An approach or situation in which something occurs by default, without being explicitly introduced.
    • US defaultism
    • But, in being an African-American politician, [Obama] […] introduces race by default. This racial defaultism is what must be considered as far as a potential limitation in the president's bargaining power, despite whites' liberalization about race and race-related policy issues.2012, William Crotty, editor, The Obama Presidency: Promise and Performance, page 132
  2. The often misguided belief that the circumstances surrounding an individual are the default for everyone else.

Origin of defaultism

From default + -ism.

Questions about defaultism

What does defaultism mean?
Defaultism means an approach or situation in which something occurs by default, without being explicitly introduced.
What part of speech is defaultism?
Defaultism is a noun.
How do you pronounce defaultism?
Defaultism is pronounced /dɪˈfɒl.tɪ.zəm/ (UK).

Words near defaultism in the dictionary

  1. defaulted
  2. defaulter
  3. defaulters
  4. defaulting
  5. defaultings
  6. defaultism
  7. defaultist
  8. defaultists
  9. defaultless
  10. defaultly
  11. defaults

Source and license

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