cynicism

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
“
But this cynicism is the basic prerequisite for progressive credentials.

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
  2. noun A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act: "She arrived at a philosophy of her own, all made up of her private notations and cynicisms” (Henry James).
  3. noun The beliefs of the ancient Cynics.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • "Your cynicism is as disgusting as any - thing they do!" —  The Vanishing Tower
  • But this cynicism is the basic prerequisite for progressive credentials. —  Latest Articles
  • A savvy Willy Loman in a sharp suit, this man will assume his cynicism is armour enough against the unknown. —  The Economist: Correspondent's diary
  • Obama says treating politics like a game ends up causing a kind of cynicism, and it's hard to disagree with the notion that many of us are very cynical about our whole political process thanks to the negative campaigning and the partisan bickering that we're exposed to day in and day out in Washington, D.C., but is it really like "American Idol" or "Survivor"? —  CNN Transcript Feb 5, 2007
  • The evidence of my cynicism is all there. —  OpEdNews - OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged cynicism

cynical · diogenes

Stats

Cynicism has been looked up 875 times, favorited twice, listed 22 times, and commented on twice.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from cynic + -ism. Cf. Late Latin cynismus, from Greek κυνισμός, cynicism, from κυνίζειν, be a cynic, from κυνικός, a cynic: see cynic.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈsɪnɪsɪzm/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a week.

Recent Lookups

mock-up · flamethrower · basso-relievo · skut · hankering

Recent Favorites

emulous · abdicated · pique · mellifluous · zeitgeist

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious