Word.ws English Dictionary

niggerism

niggerism noun: something characteristic of black people.

Noun

niggerism (countable and uncountable, plural niggerisms)

  1. (countable, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) Something characteristic of black people.
    • He loved their tricks of language, loved to pick up and feel and taste new words from their rich reservoir of niggerisms.1970, Claude McKay, Banjo
    • But as it was, not until the 1940s did the industry begin to depart significantly from the stereotypes with their "insulting niggerisms"...1975, Daniel J Leab, From Sambo to Superspade: the Black experience in motion pictures
  2. (dated, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur, uncountable) Political support for black people.
    • "We represent the majority of the people in Alabama who hate niggerism, Catholicism, Judaism, and all the -isms of the whole world." So said Robert Creel of the Alabama Klu Klux Klan. He also said, "I like Barry Goldwater. He needs our help."1964, Unnamed narrator, KKK and Goldwater
    • Their black support confirmed the charge of "niggerism" and helped the Democrats turn the widespread Negrophobia to their account.1976, William Fletcher Thompson, The History of Wisconsin

Examples of niggerism in a sentence

  • Some refuse to countenance Negro music on the grounds that it is niggerism, and for that reason should be done away with.1990, Mary Lynn Broe, The Gender of Modernism, A Critical Anthology, page 182:
  • The spot quoted a Klan official saying, "In Alabama, we hate niggerism, Catholicism, and Judaism."1988, Philip M Seib, Who's in Charge?:

Forms of niggerism

pluralniggerisms

Origin of niggerism

From nigger + -ism.

Questions about niggerism

What does niggerism mean?
Niggerism means something characteristic of black people.
How do you use niggerism in a sentence?
Some refuse to countenance Negro music on the grounds that it is niggerism, and for that reason should be done away with.
What part of speech is niggerism?
Niggerism is a noun.
What is the plural of niggerism?
The plural of niggerism is niggerisms.

Words near niggerism in the dictionary

  1. niggerises
  2. niggerish
  3. niggerishly
  4. niggerishness
  5. niggerising
  6. niggerism
  7. niggerisms
  8. niggeritis
  9. niggerization
  10. niggerize
  11. niggerized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: niggerism (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: “niggerism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/niggerism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.