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ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Imperialism

/ɪmˈpɪə.ɹi.ə.lɪ.z(ə)m/ · noun

Meaning

The policy of forcefully extending a nation's authority by territorial gain or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations..

Definitions by Sense

  1. The policy of forcefully extending a nation's authority by territorial gain or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations.
  2. (figurative, derogatory) Any undue extension of political, intellectual, or other forms of authority, particularly in regards to systems that benefit the Western world at the cost of the Global South.

Example Sentences

Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.
The moral imperialism of the Supreme Court did not end with Chief Justice Warren’s resignation nor with the departures of the Justices who made up his distinctive majority.
By contrast, economists of the Chicago School approach [sociology] from a standpoint of the imperialism of economics, in the sense that they advance the study of substructure into the areas of the study of superstructure, by researching it as economics.
[…] her analysis of the discourse on private belief […] “reduced” and thus “explained away” my intuitions as being something other than what I experience them to be for myself. It was therefore the imperialism of her method that I claimed to be particularly offensive.

Synonyms for imperialism

Antonyms for imperialism

Related Words

Word Forms

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does imperialism mean?

Imperialism means The policy of forcefully extending a nation's authority by territorial gain or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations..

What is a synonym for imperialism?

The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.

What is the opposite of imperialism?

The opposite depends on the specific sense.

How do you use imperialism in a sentence?

Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.