Word.ws English Dictionary

draconianism

draconianism noun: a system of cruel or harsh laws.

Noun (1)

draconianism (usually uncountable, plural draconianisms)

  1. (usually) A system of cruel or harsh laws.
    • When an organization has selected its mission and laid out its strategies for attaining it, the job duties inherent in those functions must be monitored to determined that they are being performed adequately. This aspect of monitoring may smack of draconianism or Taylorism, but it is not. All...2002, Carolyn J. Downey; Fenwick W. English; Larry E. Frase; R. Gerald Melton; William K. Poston, Jr.; Betty E. Steffy, “Strategy Thirty-six: Monitor the Curriculum”, in 50 Ways to Raise Students’...

Noun (2) capitalized: Draconianism

Draconianism (usually uncountable, plural Draconianisms)

  1. (usually) Alternative letter-case form of draconianism.
    • What a store of shame and sorrow is he laying up for himself! I never much admired the vaunt of Draconianism, ‘And all this I dare do, because I dare,’ yet what but this is Lord Byron’s plea!1819, William Gifford, letter to John Murray; quoted in Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends: Memoir and Correspondence of the Late John Murray, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […]; New...
    • This latter development is one of the most interesting of all Nazi Draconianisms. Under the Hereditary Farms Law of 1933, all farms up to 312 acres that are capable of supporting a family can never be mortgaged or sold and must be passed on undivided by the owner after his death to the eldest (in...1939 October, “Germany I: ‘We Are Living in a Fortress’”, in Fortune, volume XX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 126, column 2

Forms of draconianism

pluraldraconianisms
alternative formDraconianism
pluralDraconianisms

Origin of draconianism

From draconian + -ism.

From Draconian + -ism.

Questions about draconianism

What does draconianism mean?
Draconianism means a system of cruel or harsh laws.
What part of speech is draconianism?
Draconianism is a noun.
What is the plural of draconianism?
The plural of draconianism is draconianisms.

Words near draconianism in the dictionary

  1. dracone
  2. dracones
  3. draconettid
  4. draconettids
  5. draconian
  6. draconianism
  7. draconianisms
  8. draconianly
  9. draconians
  10. draconic
  11. draconic chart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draconianism (page history and authors); Draconianism (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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