Word.ws English Dictionary

McCarthyism

/məˈkɑː.θi.ɪzəm/US/məˈkɑɹ.θi.ɪzəm/

McCarthyism noun: the mass pressure, harassment, and/or blacklisting used to pressure people to follow popular political beliefs, especially as opposed to communism.

Noun

McCarthyism (usually uncountable, plural McCarthyisms)

  1. (derogatory, usually) The mass pressure, harassment, and/or blacklisting used to pressure people to follow popular political beliefs, especially as opposed to communism.
    • This is McMuskism: it’s McCarthyism on steroids, political persecution + Trump + Musk + Silicon Valley surveillance tools. It’s the dawn of a new age of political witch-hunts, where burning at the stake meets data harvesting and online mobs.2024 November 17, Carole Cadwalladr, “How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...

Proper noun

McCarthyism

  1. The intense opposition to, and fear and suspicion of, Communism, particularly in the United States during the 1950s.
    • An important symptom of the difference between McCarthyism and Birchism is the shift in the geographical center of gravity.1964, Daniel Bell, The Radical Right, page 234

McCarthyism meaning in Vietnamese

McCarthyism in Vietnamese

intense opposition to Communism
chủ nghĩa McCarthy

Forms of McCarthyism

pluralMcCarthyisms

Origin of McCarthyism

From McCarthy + -ism, named after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy. Originates from a 1950 Washington Post political cartoon by Herbert Block.

Words formed from McCarthyism

Questions about McCarthyism

What does McCarthyism mean?
McCarthyism means the mass pressure, harassment, and/or blacklisting used to pressure people to follow popular political beliefs, especially as opposed to communism.
What is McCarthyism in Vietnamese?
McCarthyism in Vietnamese is chủ nghĩa McCarthy. See McCarthyism meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is McCarthyism?
McCarthyism can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce McCarthyism?
McCarthyism is pronounced /məˈkɑː.θi.ɪzəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of McCarthyism?
The plural of McCarthyism is McCarthyisms.

Words near McCarthyism in the dictionary

  1. McCarter
  2. McCarters
  3. McCarthy
  4. McCarthy's shrew
  5. McCarthyesque
  6. McCarthyism
  7. McCarthyisms
  8. McCarthyist
  9. McCarthyistic
  10. McCarthyists
  11. McCarthyite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: McCarthyism (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-McCathyism.wav.

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