nepotism
UK/ˈnɛp.ə.tɪ.zəm//ˈnɛp.ə.tɪ.zəm/
nepotism noun: the favoring of relatives (most strictly) or also personal friends (more broadly) because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.
Noun
nepotism (countable and uncountable, plural nepotisms)
- The favoring of relatives (most strictly) or also personal friends (more broadly) because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.
- Nepotism can get you very far in the world if you've got the right connections.
- Now retailers even demand deslotting or failure fees, a penalty for trial products that fail to meet their sales objectives. The struggle over display space heavily favors the incumbents and encourages what might be called brand nepotism.1989, Report on Business Magazine, volume 6, numbers 1-6, page 100
- Antonyms:
- meritocracy
nepotism meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
nepotism in Hindi
- favoring of relatives or personal friends
- भाई-भतीजावाद bhāī-bhatījāvād
nepotism in Tamil
- உறவினருக்களிக்கும் தனிச் சலுகை, உறவினர், இனத்தவர்க்கென தனிச் சலுகை காட்டுதல், குருதிச் சலுகை
nepotism in Marathi
- favoring of relatives or personal friends
- घराणेशाही gharāṇeśāhī
nepotism in Urdu
- اقربا نوازی, اقربا پروری, خویش پروری, کنبہ پروری
More languagesFewer languages
- nepotism in Bengali
- স্বজনপ্রীতি
- nepotism in Malayalam
- സ്വജനപക്ഷപാതം, പക്ഷാവലംബനം, കക്ഷിപക്ഷപാതം, പക്ഷത
- nepotism in Kannada
- ಸ್ವಜನ ಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ, ಬಂಧುಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ, ಆಶ್ರಿತ ಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ, ನಂಟೊಲವು
- nepotism in Indonesian
- nepotisme
- nepotism in Thai
- คติเห็นแก่ญาติ
Antonyms of nepotism
Forms of nepotism
| plural | nepotisms |
|---|
Origin of nepotism
Borrowed from French népotisme, from Italian nepotismo, from Latin nepōs (“nephew”), a reference to the practice of popes appointing relatives (most often nephews) as cardinals (cardinal-nephew) during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Words formed from nepotism
Phrases with nepotism
Questions about nepotism
- What does nepotism mean?
- Nepotism means the favoring of relatives (most strictly) or also personal friends (more broadly) because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.
- What is nepotism in Hindi?
- Nepotism in Hindi is भाई-भतीजावाद (bhāī-bhatījāvād). See Nepotism meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is nepotism?
- Nepotism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce nepotism?
- Nepotism is pronounced /ˈnɛp.ə.tɪ.zəm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nepotism?
- The plural of nepotism is nepotisms.
Words near nepotism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nepotism (page history and authors); nepotism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nepotism (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nepotism (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nepotism (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); nepotism (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-nepotism.ogg, en-au-nepotism.ogg.
Cite this entry: “nepotism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nepotism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.