noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
UK:/ˈmɒɹəlɪzm/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:M AO1 R AH0 L IH2 Z AH0 M
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
The act or practice of moralizing (making moral reflections or judging the morality of others).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, often, uncountable, usually
Examples
1937, Helen Foster Snow (as Nym Wales), “The Modern Chinese Literary Movement” in Edgar Snow (ed.), Living China: Modern Chinese Short Stories, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 337, The Romantic movement [...] struggled for ‘art for art’s sake’ against the old moralism and didacticism [...]
2011, Donald Weinstein, Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet, New Haven: Yale University Press, Chapter 1, p. 8, Reared by conventionally pious parents, Girolamo also imbibed more than a little of his grandfather’s dour moralism along with his Latin lessons, Bible studies, and Saint Thomas.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A maxim or saying believed by the speaker to embody a moral truth; an instance of moralizing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, derogatory, often, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Religious practice that focuses on morality while placing little emphasis on doctrine or the metaphysical; adherence to a system of morality with little or no reference to religion.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
judgments about another person's morality
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
he could not stand her hectoring moralism
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: value judgment, value judgement
5
noun
Meaning 5
a moral maxim
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: maxim, axiom
History
Etymology
From French moralisme.
Across languages
Translations
16 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Catalan:
moralisme
— Act or practice of moralizing
Finnish:
moralismi
— Act or practice of moralizing
French:
moralisme
— Act or practice of moralizing
Galician:
moralismo
— Act or practice of moralizing
German:
Moralismus
— Act or practice of moralizing
Italian:
moralismo
— Act or practice of moralizing
Latvian:
morālisms
— Act or practice of moralizing
Polish:
moralizm
— Act or practice of moralizing
Polish:
moralizatorstwo
— Act or practice of moralizing
Polish:
moralizowanie
— Act or practice of moralizing
Portuguese:
moralismo
— Act or practice of moralizing
Romanian:
moralism
— Act or practice of moralizing
Serbo-Croatian:
moralizam
— Act or practice of moralizing
Spanish:
moralismo
— Act or practice of moralizing
