Word.ws English Dictionary

synoecism

/sɪˈniːsɪzəm/

synoecism noun: the unification of towns, tribes etc. under one capital city or polis.

Noun

synoecism (plural synoecisms)

  1. (Ancient Greece) The unification of towns, tribes etc. under one capital city or polis.
    • They always remained separate states and were never synoikised.1886, English History Review, I, pg 636
    • Legends...current before the villages were synoecised into Athens.1887, Andrew Lang, Myth, Ritual & Religion, I, pg 266

Forms of synoecism

pluralsynoecisms
alternative formsynœcism

Origin of synoecism

From Ancient Greek συνοικισμός (sunoikismós), from συνοικίζειν (sunoikízein, “to make live with, to unite under one city”), from σύν (sún, “together”) + οἰκίζειν (oikízein, “to colonise”).

Questions about synoecism

What does synoecism mean?
Synoecism means the unification of towns, tribes etc. under one capital city or polis.
What part of speech is synoecism?
Synoecism is a noun.
How do you pronounce synoecism?
Synoecism is pronounced /sɪˈniːsɪzəm/.
What is the plural of synoecism?
The plural of synoecism is synoecisms.

Words near synoecism in the dictionary

  1. synoecious
  2. synoecise
  3. synoecised
  4. synoecises
  5. synoecising
  6. synoecism
  7. synoecisms
  8. synoecize
  9. synoecized
  10. synoecizes
  11. synoecizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: synoecism (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “synoecism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/synoecism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.