Word.ws English Dictionary

resourceism

resourceism noun: a human tendency to regard the natural environment as a set of resources to be exploited.

Noun

resourceism (uncountable)

  1. (rare) A human tendency to regard the natural environment as a set of resources to be exploited.
    • David Suzuki would remind you that this is the language of "a planet for the taking," the terminology of "resourceism" in which all living things are viewed as raw materials for the service of mankind1988, Seasons, volumes 28-29, page 10
    • Similarly, to describe someone as "greedy as a pig" or "a snake in the grass" is an animal insult, or "speciesism"; "natural resources" betray a sign of "resourceism," […]1993, Archivaria

Origin of resourceism

From resource + -ism.

Questions about resourceism

What does resourceism mean?
Resourceism means a human tendency to regard the natural environment as a set of resources to be exploited.
What part of speech is resourceism?
Resourceism is a noun.

Words near resourceism in the dictionary

  1. resourced
  2. resourceful
  3. resourcefully
  4. resourcefulness
  5. resourcefulnesses
  6. resourceism
  7. resourceless
  8. resourcelessness
  9. resourcement
  10. resourceome
  11. resourceomes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: resourceism (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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