Word.ws English Dictionary

speciesism

/ˈspiːʃiːˌzɪzəm/

speciesism noun: an ethical stance that assigns different worth or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership, such as assigning greater rights to human beings than to other animals.

Noun

speciesism (uncountable)

  1. An ethical stance that assigns different worth or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership, such as assigning greater rights to human beings than to other animals.
    • Such is the breathtaking speciesism of our Christian-inspired attitudes, the abortion of a single human zygote (most of them are destined to be spontaneously aborted anyway) can arouse more moral solicitude and righteous indignation than the vivisection of any number of intelligent adult chimpanzees1996 [1986], Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., →ISBN
    • This human chauvinism is one form of a general type of discrimination known as speciesism. What is speciesism? Think of racism. The term “speciesism” has been strategically used by animal rights activists from the 1970s onward precisely […]2013, John Huss, Planet of the Apes and Philosophy: Great Apes Think Alike, Open Court, →ISBN, page 84

speciesism meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese

speciesism in Tamil

விலங்கினவாதம், தற்சிறப்பினத் தன்மை

speciesism in Vietnamese

Translations
chủ nghĩa đẳng cấp loài

Forms of speciesism

alternative formspecies-ism
alternative formspeciesm
alternative formspecism

Origin of speciesism

Coined by British animal rights advocate Richard D. Ryder in 1970 from species + -ism.

Words formed from speciesism

Questions about speciesism

What does speciesism mean?
Speciesism means an ethical stance that assigns different worth or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership, such as assigning greater rights to human beings than to other animals.
What is speciesism in Tamil?
Speciesism in Tamil is விலங்கினவாதம், தற்சிறப்பினத் தன்மை. See Speciesism meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is speciesism?
Speciesism is a noun.
How do you pronounce speciesism?
Speciesism is pronounced /ˈspiːʃiːˌzɪzəm/.

Words near speciesism in the dictionary

  1. species-monger
  2. species-mongers
  3. species-rich
  4. speciescide
  5. specieses
  6. speciesism
  7. speciesist
  8. speciesists
  9. speciesless
  10. specieslike
  11. speciesm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: speciesism (page history and authors); speciesism (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: “speciesism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/speciesism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.