Word.ws English Dictionary

legalism

legalism noun: the focusing on the text of written law to the exclusion of the intent of law, elevating strict adherence to law over justice, mercy, grace and common sense. Also the alternative letter-case form of Legalism.

Noun (1)

legalism (countable and uncountable, plural legalisms)

  1. (uncountable) The focusing on the text of written law to the exclusion of the intent of law, elevating strict adherence to law over justice, mercy, grace and common sense.
    Synonyms:
    casuistry
  2. (derogatory, often, uncountable) A belief that salvation is attained or maintained by adherence to the requirements of moral law; salvation by works rather than by faith alone.
  3. (countable) A legal axiom, term or rule.

Noun (2) capitalized: Legalism

Legalism (uncountable)

  1. A school of thought, originating in ancient China during the Warring States period and officially adopted during the Qin dynasty, advocating rule by law as key to ensuring social stability.

Also used as

legalism is also the alternative letter-case form of Legalism.

Synonyms of legalism

Antonyms

Forms of legalism

plurallegalisms

Origin of legalism

From legal + -ism. Piecewise doublet of loyalism.

From legal + -ism, calque from Chinese 法家 (fǎjiā). Almost always capitalised.

Questions about legalism

What does legalism mean?
Legalism means the focusing on the text of written law to the exclusion of the intent of law, elevating strict adherence to law over justice, mercy, grace and common sense.
What part of speech is legalism?
Legalism is a noun.
What is the plural of legalism?
The plural of legalism is legalisms.

Words near legalism in the dictionary

  1. legalised
  2. legaliser
  3. legalisers
  4. legalises
  5. legalising
  6. legalism
  7. legalisms
  8. legalist
  9. legalistic
  10. legalistically
  11. legalistics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: legalism (page history and authors); Legalism (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: “legalism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/legalism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.