Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The beliefs, practices, or doctrine of an iconoclast.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of breaking or destroying images; specifically, a general destruction of the images and pictures set up in churches as objects of veneration carried out by the Iconoclasts in the eighth and ninth centuries, and by Protestants in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century.
- n. Hence The act of attacking cherished beliefs or traditional institutions regarded as based on error or superstition: the doctrine or spirit of one who so attacks.
Wiktionary
- n. The belief in, participation in, or sanction of destroying religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The doctrine or practice of the iconoclasts; image breaking.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the orientation of an iconoclast
Etymologies
- From iconoclast. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from iconoclast. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Meanwhile, the thrill that comes with 1970s-style iconoclasm is no more.”
“Newspaper accounts of his life since his death two days ago indicate that he was derided by the reigning New York art world for his attachment to realism, whereas they reveled in iconoclasm or in iconoclastic iconism (Warhol et al.).”
“Romanticism could that desire (somewhat perversely) be associated with the sublime, so that a first-level iconoclasm is actually the hoped-for means by which words attain the animism of images?”
“His iconoclasm was the decadence of the social cesspool and the expurgation of money power which he believed was the ne plus ultra of anarchy and the genius of diabolic perfidy.”
“Yet, this kind of iconoclasm had a narcotic effect.”
“In order to come to terms with a swelling 'iconoclasm', there is a need for visual competence, which our culture of the written word lacks.”
“The New York Times, however, asked readers to give the woman credit … She says her lines with feeling and puts her iconoclasm right out there where everyone can see it.”
“However, the FF's other bit of iconoclasm is its all-wheel-drive system FF=Ferrari Four.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Coolest Ferrari Ever—Drive Carefully
“Wimpy is well worth reading at a time when his brand of progressive, blue-collar iconoclasm is pretty rare, in the Machinists and other unions -- although Rose Ann DeMoro of the California Nurses Association does a pretty good job of keeping the Wimpy tradition alive.”
The Huffington Post: Steve Early: Does Labor Need Another Wimpy?
“Theodore stands out in Church history as one of the great reformers of monastic life", said Pope Benedict, "and, alongside Patriarch St. Nicephorus of Constantinople, as a defender of sacred images during the second stage of iconoclasm".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘iconoclasm’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 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 11184 more...
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phrontistery - i
from phrontistery.info
izzat, izzard, ixiodic, izard, ivresse, ixora, ivorist, ivoride, ivorine, iulus, iulan, ithomiid and 510 more...
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Ends in "-sm" but isn't an "ism"
pleonasm, prism, schism, orgasm, spasm, iconoclasm, chasm, enthusiasm, phantasm, ectoplasm, cytoplasm, aneurysm and 55 more...
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hildjj's Words
bookmarklet, demisemiquaver, zeitgeist, hermeneutics, oligarch, quisling, absinthe, mellifluent, verisimilitude, implacable, necrotic, nacreous and 243 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
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katiefallwest's Words
facetious, hallows, snarky, literati, cantankerous, gryphon, esoteric, fortuitous, impetus, ubiquitous, muggle, colour and 144 more...
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Wordnik Words
Words that appear on the home page of Wordnik.
abaci, cabooleat, endomorphic, warfinger, varna, tautological, quesadillia, hub, oceanography, ken, ignimbrite, galactagogue and 110 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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bosporian's Words
corybantiasm, delphic, oneiromancy, bibliothecary, wyrd, lygophilia, cimmerian, agathodaemon, crepuscular, ignosis, peisithanatos, alpenglow and 94 more...
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-Isms and -asms
My dream is to one day become my own -ism.
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tez's Words
tain, curlicue, eidolon, exoteric, puissant, ragamuffin, insouciant, yarrow, taciturn, mundane, vomitorium, tenebre and 140 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for iconoclasm.

laurelexmachina I actually love the word iconoclasm. When I say it, there's a specific expression I adopt. Dec 29, 2009
andrew.simone It's the 'clasm' half that bugs me. Dec 11, 2006
seanahan This word feels a bit clunky to me. Dec 11, 2006