Word.ws English Dictionary

fascism

Syllables: fasc·i·sm/ˈfæʃɪz(ə)m/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Philippines/faˈsiz(ə)m/

fascism noun: any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and society, and repression of criticism or opposition.

Noun (1)

fascism (usually uncountable, plural fascisms)

  1. (usually) Any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and society, and repression of criticism or opposition.
    • Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes... Ownership has never been abolished, there are still capitalists and workers, and—this is the important point, and the real reason why rich...1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II
    • Despite the three decades that have passed since the end of the second world war, fascism remains a subject of much heated argument. […] It also continues to be a subject of controversy, partly because it collides with so many preconceived ideological notions, partly because generalizations are...1978, Walter Laqueur, Fascism: A Reader's Guide: Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography
    1. (usually, strictest sense) The ideology and practice of the 20th-century Italian movement from which this name came.
      • Today "Fascism" like Russian "Bolshevism" does not know what freedom means and cares less about the principles of liberty and the rights of man. It knows only one law and that is the will of Mussolini and his band of "Black Shirts."1922 December, The American Photo-engraver, volume 15, page 324
      • Fascism, with all its forcefulness in the prosecution of its violent deeds, is indeed nothing else but the expression of the disintegration and decay of capitalist economy, and the symptom of the dissolution of the bourgeois State.1923 August, Clara Zetkin, “Fascism”, in Labour Monthly, volume 5, number 2, page 70
  2. (broadly, derogatory, usually) Any system of strong autocracy or oligarchy usually to the extent of bending and breaking the law, race-baiting, and/or violence against largely unarmed populations.
    • ...even the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small...1944, George Orwell, What Is Fascism?
    • For Argentine fascists and nacionalistas, fascism was not a theory but a mold for Catholic thinking. For instance, one of the most significant nacionalista intellectuals, César Pico, argued that fascism was a "reaction against the calamities ascribed to liberal democracy, socialism, and capitalism....2009, Federico Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945
  3. (derogatory, figuratively, usually) Any extreme reliance on or enforcement of rules and regulations.
    Synonyms:
    sticklerism

Noun (2) capitalized: Fascism

Fascism (uncountable)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of fascism.
    • The author is not to blame for the fact that so much lying propaganda against the Communists has created a climate of opinion that paves the way for Fascism and a third world war. This study is concerned only with dispelling of fear, with opening the channels of communication, and with reversing...1970, Morris Kominsky, chapter XVI, in The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars, and Damned Liars, volume I, Boston: Branden Press, Inc., 8283-1288-5, page 662

fascism meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

fascism in Hindi

extreme totalitarian political regime
फ़ासीवाद fāsīvād, फ़ैसिज़्म faisizm, फ़ासिज़्म fāsizm

fascism in Tamil

system of strong autocracy or oligarchy
பாசிசம் pācicam
extreme totalitarian political regime
பாசிசம் pācicam

fascism in Urdu

extreme totalitarian political regime
فاشِیَت fāśiyat, فاشِزْم fāśizm

fascism in Bengali

extreme totalitarian political regime
ফ্যাসিবাদ phêśibad
More languagesFewer languages
fascism in Telugu
ఫాసిజం phāsijaṁ
fascism in Gujarati
ફાસીવાદ phāsīvād
fascism in Sinhala
ෆැසිස්ට්වාදය fæsisṭwādaya
fascism in Pashto
فاشيزم
fascism in Tagalog
pasismo
fascism in Arabic
فَاشِيَّة fāšiyya
fascism in Malay
fasisme
fascism in Indonesian
fasisme
fascism in Thai
ฟาสซิสต์ fáat-sít, ลัทธิฟาสซิสต์ lát-tí fáat-sít
fascism in Vietnamese
chủ nghĩa phát xít
fascism in Myanmar
ဖက်ဆစ်ဝါဒ hpakhcac-wada.

Examples of fascism in a sentence

  • Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes...1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. II:
  • Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.1995 June 22, Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism”, in The New York Review of Books, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2017:
  • His criticism of what he calls “Kurdish fascism” prompted this interview, which is part of my current doctoral research[...]2024 January 9, “The Out-of-Flock Dissident: An Interview with Kurdish – Syrian Writer Jan Dost”, in Cambridge University Press, retrieved...
  • By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class.1944, George Orwell, What Is Fascism?:

All 26 example sentences with fascism

Synonyms of fascism

Antonyms

Forms of fascism

pluralfascisms
alternative formFascism

Origin of fascism

From Italian fascismo, from fascio (“fasces, bundle, group”) + -ismo (“-ism”) with direct reference to Benito Mussolini's fasci di combattimento ("fight clubs"), from Latin fasces, bundles of axes and rods carried before the magistrates of the ancient Roman Republic as representative of their power of life and death. Originally with exclusive reference to Fascist Italy which used the fasces as an emblem, later broadened to describe all of the Axis Powers of World War II, and subsequently used as a general term of opprobrium in English and international political discourse. Etymology tree Latin fascis Italian fascio Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ῐσμός (-ĭsmós)bor. Latin -ismus Italian -ismo Italian fascismolbor. English fascism

Words formed from fascism

Questions about fascism

What does fascism mean?
Fascism means any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and society, and repression of criticism or opposition.
What is fascism in Hindi?
Fascism in Hindi is फ़ासीवाद (fāsīvād), फ़ैसिज़्म (faisizm), फ़ासिज़्म (fāsizm). See Fascism meaning in Hindi.
How do you use fascism in a sentence?
Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes...
What part of speech is fascism?
Fascism is a noun.
How do you pronounce fascism?
Fascism is pronounced /ˈfæʃɪz(ə)m/ (US).
What is the plural of fascism?
The plural of fascism is fascisms.

Words near fascism in the dictionary

  1. fascioscapulohumeral
  2. fasciosis
  3. fasciotomies
  4. fasciotomy
  5. fascisize
  6. fascism
  7. fascisms
  8. fascist
  9. Fascist Germany
  10. fascistic
  11. fascistical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fascism (page history and authors); Fascism (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-fascism.oga.

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