Word.ws English Dictionary

quixotism

/ˈkwɪksəˌtɪzm/

quixotism noun: a form of idealism and delusion which leads to extravagant and absurd undertakings or sacrifices in obedience to a morbidly romantic ideal of duty or honor, as illustrated by the exploits of Don Quixote in knight-errantry.

Noun (1)

quixotism (countable and uncountable, plural quixotisms)

  1. A form of idealism and delusion which leads to extravagant and absurd undertakings or sacrifices in obedience to a morbidly romantic ideal of duty or honor, as illustrated by the exploits of Don Quixote in knight-errantry.
    • M. Georges Berry, the Paris municipal councilor, has broken many a lance in tilting against old, and in some cases, time honored, abuses, and for his pains has not infrequently heard it suggested that there was a dash of Quixotism in his composition.1890 April 3, The New York Herald, European Edition
    • For the rest of his life, [Miguel de] Unamuno urged his fellow Spaniards to practice quixotism, which meant adopting the moral courage necessary to fight for lost causes without caring what the world thinks.2017 May 29, Mariana Alessandri, “In Praise of Lost Causes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    quixotry

Noun (2) capitalized: Quixotism

Quixotism (countable and uncountable, plural Quixotisms)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of quixotism.

Synonyms of quixotism

Forms of quixotism

pluralquixotisms
alternative formQuixotism
pluralQuixotisms

Origin of quixotism

From Quixote + -ism.

Questions about quixotism

What does quixotism mean?
Quixotism means a form of idealism and delusion which leads to extravagant and absurd undertakings or sacrifices in obedience to a morbidly romantic ideal of duty or honor, as illustrated by the exploits of Don Quixote in knight-errantry.
What part of speech is quixotism?
Quixotism is a noun.
How do you pronounce quixotism?
Quixotism is pronounced /ˈkwɪksəˌtɪzm/.
What is the plural of quixotism?
The plural of quixotism is quixotisms.

Words near quixotism in the dictionary

  1. quixotic
  2. quixotical
  3. quixotically
  4. quixotics
  5. quixotish
  6. quixotism
  7. quixotisms
  8. quixotize
  9. quixotized
  10. quixotizes
  11. quixotizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quixotism (page history and authors); Quixotism (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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Cite this entry: “quixotism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quixotism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.