Word.ws English Dictionary

Luddism

Luddism noun: opposition to the Industrial Revolution by textile workers fearing for their livelihoods.

Noun

Luddism (uncountable)

  1. (historical) Opposition to the Industrial Revolution by textile workers fearing for their livelihoods.
  2. (broadly, derogatory) Opposition to technological change.
    • He walks over to the wine crates holding the LPs, gets infuriated with the brutal Luddism of any man who still deals in vinyl and needle.2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 134

Origin of Luddism

From Ludd + -ism, after Ned Ludd, a legendary example.

Questions about Luddism

What does Luddism mean?
Luddism means opposition to the Industrial Revolution by textile workers fearing for their livelihoods.
What part of speech is Luddism?
Luddism is a noun.

Words near Luddism in the dictionary

  1. Luddenham
  2. luddenite
  3. Luddies
  4. Luddington
  5. Luddingtons
  6. Luddism
  7. luddite
  8. luddites
  9. Ludditism
  10. luddoo
  11. luddoos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Luddism (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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