Word.ws English Dictionary

retributivism

retributivism noun: a philosophy of law, stating that criminals should be punished (retribution) for the harm they have caused.

Noun

retributivism (uncountable)

  1. A philosophy of law, stating that criminals should be punished (retribution) for the harm they have caused.

Origin of retributivism

From retributive + -ism.

Questions about retributivism

What does retributivism mean?
Retributivism means a philosophy of law, stating that criminals should be punished (retribution) for the harm they have caused.
What part of speech is retributivism?
Retributivism is a noun.

Words near retributivism in the dictionary

  1. retributionists
  2. retributions
  3. retributive
  4. retributively
  5. retributiveness
  6. retributivism
  7. retributivist
  8. retributivists
  9. retributor
  10. retributors
  11. retributory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retributivism (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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