Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ism in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun

Ism means an ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism. Example: “An ism does not have to possess the fearful implements of state power to cut off a deviant or heretical member.”

Examples of ism by meaning

nounAn ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism.

  • An ism does not have to possess the fearful implements of state power to cut off a deviant or heretical member.1965, Bertram David Wolfe, Marxism, One Hundred Years in the Life of a Doctrine, page 357
  • In his exposition, he has failed to achieve the identification of situation, theory, and policy necessary to create an ism.1969, Walter E. Minchinton, Mercantilism; System Or Expediency?, page xi
  • Isms in my opinion are not good.1986, John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, spoken by Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick)

nounA form of discrimination, such as racism or sexism.

  • Parents and educators play a critical role in helping children of all ages navigate current events and talk openly about the historical roots of the various ‘isms in our country.2020 June 6, Lisa Selin Davis, “Children aren’t born racist. Here’s how parents can stop them from becoming racist.”, in CNN, spoken by...

More sentences with ism

  • ISMs and topics that were under meeting sections 6 to 10 are now no longer a thing.2022 December 13, Frumple, “December 2022 GSM Results”, in Minecart Rapid Transit. From the entry no longer
  • “Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is.2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”…. From the entry division
  • The nice thing about an ism, someone once observed, is how quickly it becomes a wasm.1996 March 10, Richard Taruskin, “Classical view: How talented composers become useless”, in The New York Times, archived from the…. From the entry wasm
  • Almost all the fascist ideological motifs can be noticed in the structures of Stalinism and Ceaușism.1990, Lumea (issues 1-3, page 13). From the entry Ceaușism
  • Not the obsession with the isms and the ists of Balls, Miliband, Cooper and Alexander and their acolytes.2009 March 29, Kevin McKenna, “That's enough men leaning on shovels”, in The Observer. From the entry ist
  • Per­son­ally, I have a sug­ges­tion for the Marx­ist parties in Nepal: care­fully study the Epstein archives and make a choice between Marx­ism and Epstein­ism.2026 February 12, Nirmal P Acharya, “Does cap­it­al­ism devour people?”, in People's Review Weekly. From the entry Epsteinism
  • Distracting, diverting, trivialising, story telling, one-upping and ‘me-too’-isms make light of children’s problems and imply that if something is too hard, we should avoid it.2020, Louise Porter, “Listening to Children”, in Young Children’s Behaviour: Guidance Approaches for Early Childhood Educators, 4th…. From the entry me-too-ism
  • In the country of its origin (Germany) and in the country of its adoption (America), Gestalt psychology was a reaction against two "-isms": atomism and anatomism.2018, Michael T. Turvey, Lectures on Perception: An Ecological Perspective, page 192. From the entry anatomism

Meaning of ism

  1. noun An ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism.
  2. noun A form of discrimination, such as racism or sexism.

Full definition of ism

Questions about ism in a sentence

How do you use ism in a sentence?
Ism is used as a noun. For example: “An ism does not have to possess the fearful implements of state power to cut off a deviant or heretical member.”
What is a short sentence with ism?
“Isms in my opinion are not good.”
What does ism mean?
Ism means an ideology, system of thought, or practice that can be described by a word ending in -ism.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ism (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use ism in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.