Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of having capital or property; possession of capital.
- n. The concentration or massing of capital in the hands of a few; also, the power or influence of large or combined capital.
Wiktionary
- n. politics, uncountable a socio-economic system based on private property rights, including the private ownership of resources or capital, with economic decisions made largely through the operation of a market unregulated by the state.
- n. economics, uncountable a socio-economic system based on the abstraction of resources into the form of privately-owned capital, with economic decisions made largely through the operation of a market unregulated by the state.
- n. countable a specific variation or implementation of either such socio-economic system.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An economic system based on predominantly private (individual or corporate) investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and wealth; contrasted with
socialism or especiallycommunism , in which the state has the predominant role in the economy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an economic system based on private ownership of capital
Etymologies
- From French capitalisme ("the condition of one who is rich"). First used in English by novelist William Thackeray in 1854. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“He told them never to use the word "capitalism" -- it has now been made a dirty word by the Occupy movement, he said.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Moore: The Winter of Our Occupation
“One might say that fascism is really corporate control of politics, which is the sense in which Moore is using the term capitalism, so in fact democracy would then be the opposite of capitalism.”
“The initial usage of the term capitalism in its modern sense has been attributed to Louis Blanc in 1850 and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1861.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Non-Contradiction of Rand’s Capitalism
“But the latest tradition in American capitalism is self-reward the CxOs with lots of bonuses no matter how they do, while laying off and exporting American jobs.”
Think Progress » FACT CHECK: Combating Global Warming Does Not Require ‘Economic Castration’
“Michael Moore came on-screen and said, The flaw in capitalism is that corporations have no beliefs.”
“Giving Americans a real asset can get them started accumulating wealth, which in capitalism is the key to success.”
USATODAY.com - Solutions for debt crisis are beyond tinkering
“Norman Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary, once suggested to Kristol that, since the word capitalism was somewhat “besmirched,” he should instead write aboutfree enterprise orfree markets.”
“A Pew Research Center poll in December found that only 50 percent of Americans reacted positively to the term "capitalism," while 40 percent reacted negatively.”
“The term capitalism gives the impression that the market is something out there: a nebulous force which can create great wealth but can also turn and harm us.”
“Pope John Paul II specifically rejected the term capitalism and its mechanistic, amoral, and impersonal image, preferring instead "market economy," "business economy," or "free economy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘capitalism’.
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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-ism
denoting an action, result, or quality; denoting a system or principle; denoting a peculiarity in language; denoting a condition
alcoholism, Americanism, feminism, barbarism, exorcism, baptism, anachronism, tourism, cannibalism, capitalism, journalism, totalitarianism and 9 more...
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Isms
This list has the humble goal of cataloging every word in the English language.
capitalism, marxism, communism, catholicism, mormonism, fascism, whiggism, medievalism, neojacobinism, scientism, racialism, naderism and 1 more...
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-isms
fascism, anarchism, satanism, racism, racialism, nordicism, nazism, socialism, catholicism, national socialism, paganism, hinduism and 67 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 998 more...
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annscann's list
My words, generally
bavarois, bawbee, bawd, bawdry, libertine, russophobe, rubicund, gossamer, persnickety, claptrap, gesticulate, schadenfreudian and 199 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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European World Systems
europe, colonization, defense, barter, feudalism, gunpowder, technology, guns, domination, lords, monarchs, transition and 250 more...
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nuwerdna's Words
smegma, defenestration, nubile, zeitgeist, stochastic, ergodic, stability, maudlin, recursion, aversion, agent, set and 239 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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nfk9595's Words
magnetohydrodynamics, bovine, epistle, gargantuan, kerfuffle, verbiage, morose, coup de main, elan, achtung, uber, verboten and 497 more...
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Norman Lewis
All Words
ebullient, eccentric, eclectic, edify, efface, effusion, egalitarian, egocentric, egoist, egregious, elicit, elliptical and 907 more...
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lucidityprevails's Words
lucidity, journalistic, truthiness, foolhardy, egotism, lesbian, orgasmic, activism, moonglow, voodoo, conquer, demolish and 534 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for capitalism.
jwjarvis I have enough expertise in politics and history to understand that a free market ends up as monopoly unless you force them to be free.
WikiLeaks is designed to make capitalism more free and ethical. Dec 4, 2010
nuxiy "“In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.�? - Fran Lebowitz Mar 17, 2009
sakhalinskii "The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business." - Clarence S. Darrow Jul 30, 2008