Word.ws English Dictionary

Pahlavism

Pahlavism noun: an Iranian nationalist ideology centered on the rule and legacy of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979).

Noun

Pahlavism (uncountable)

  1. An Iranian nationalist ideology centered on the rule and legacy of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979).
    • Certainly, the attempts by the Shah to generate intermediate institutions of legitimation in the post-1960 period were a failure; the Majlis and the parties in it were phantoms, and neither Pahlavism, as a national ideology stressing the pre-Islamic past, nor authoritarian concepts of farmandari or...1981, Journal of International Affairs, volume 35, page 195
    • Like Kemalism in Turkey, Pahlavism in monarchical Iran, and the Third World's postcolonial emancipatory movements, such as Baathism in Syria and Iraq, Heydarism is modernist.2017, The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, page 42

Origin of Pahlavism

From Classical Persian پَهْلَو (pahlaw) [the root of Classical Persian پَهْلَوِی (pahlawī), from Middle Persian [Term?] (/⁠pahlaw⁠/), from Old Persian 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 (p-r-θ-v /⁠Parθavaʰ⁠/)] + -ism.

Questions about Pahlavism

What does Pahlavism mean?
Pahlavism means an Iranian nationalist ideology centered on the rule and legacy of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979).
What part of speech is Pahlavism?
Pahlavism is a noun.

Words near Pahlavism in the dictionary

  1. pahlavi
  2. Pahlavi Iran
  3. Pahlavian
  4. Pahlavian Iran
  5. pahlavis
  6. Pahlavism
  7. Pahlavist
  8. Pahlavists
  9. Pahlawi
  10. Pahlevi
  11. Pahls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pahlavism (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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