Word.ws English Dictionary

Victorianism

Victorianism noun: the behaviour or beliefs of the Victorians, especially prudery.

Noun

Victorianism (countable and uncountable, plural Victorianisms)

  1. The behaviour or beliefs of the Victorians, especially prudery.
    • These [sex manuals] reflect an age in which, it appears, the only hope for heterosexual love is technical know-how. Supposedly designed to free the reader from Victorianism and guilt, these books constitute clumsy, self-conscious attempts to liberate the reader.1976 February 7, L. S. Eneri, “New Sex Manual”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 12
    • It is simply the imposition of more Victorianism into community standards.1997 January 9, Morton Kondracke, “TV won't slow 'slouch to Gomorrah'”, in The Greenwood Index-Journal
  2. An expression or idiom characteristic of Victorian times.

Forms of Victorianism

pluralVictorianisms

Origin of Victorianism

From Victorian + -ism.

Questions about Victorianism

What does Victorianism mean?
Victorianism means the behaviour or beliefs of the Victorians, especially prudery.
What part of speech is Victorianism?
Victorianism is a noun.
What is the plural of Victorianism?
The plural of Victorianism is Victorianisms.

Words near Victorianism in the dictionary

  1. Victorian spongecakes
  2. Victorian sponges
  3. Victorian Turkish bath
  4. Victorian Turkish baths
  5. Victoriana
  6. Victorianism
  7. Victorianisms
  8. Victorianist
  9. Victorianists
  10. Victorianize
  11. Victorianized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Victorianism (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: “Victorianism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/victorianism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.