liberalism

English

Etymology

Circa 1819, from French libéralisme circa 1818. Equivalent to liberal +‎ -ism.

Noun

liberalism (countable and uncountable, plural liberalisms)

1. The quality of being liberal.
2. (politics) Any political movement founded on the autonomy and personal freedom of the individual, progress and reform, and government by law with the consent of the governed.
   • 2009 January 25, Timothy Garton Ash, “A Liberal Translation”, in The New York Times‎:

     Whether some distant cousin really belongs to the extended family of liberalisms is a matter of healthy dispute.

   • 2022 May 2, Zachary Goldberg, “Explaining Shifts in White Racial Liberalism: The Role of Collective Moral Emotions and Media Effects”, in Georgia State University‎, archived from the original on 25 January 2025, page 142:

     This poses obvious problems for statistical inference in that what may appear as ‘declines’ in non-white racial liberalism may actually be due to increases in representation of non-black racial/ethnic minorities whose racial attitudes are more conservative.

3. (economics) An economic ideology in favour of laissez faire and the free market (related to economic liberalism).
   • 2018, Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century:

     But liberalism has no obvious answers to the biggest problems we face: ecological collapse and technological disruption.

Derived terms

• antiliberalism
• classical liberalism
• economic liberalism
• neoclassical liberalism
• neoliberalism
• palaeoliberalism
• paleoliberalism
• social liberalism
• ultraliberalism

Translations

quality of being liberal

Arabic: لِيبْرَالِيَّة f (librāliyya) Catalan: liberalisme m Chinese: Hakka: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (chhṳ-yù chú-ngi) Hokkien: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (chū-iû chú-gī) Mandarin: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (zh) (zìyóuzhǔyì) Estonian: liberalism (et) Finnish: vapaamielisyys (fi) French: libéralisme (fr) m Georgian: ლიბერალობა (liberaloba), ლიბერალიზმი (ka) (liberalizmi) German: Liberalismus (de) m Greek: λιμπεραλισμός (el) m (limperalismós) Hebrew: ליברליזם (he) Italian: liberalismo (it) Japanese: 自由主義 (ja) (じゆうしゅぎ, jiyūshugi) Korean: 자유주의(自由主義) (ko) (jayujuui) Marathi: उदारमतवाद (udārmatvād) Polish: liberalizm (pl) m Portuguese: liberalismo (pt) m Russian: либерали́зм (ru) m (liberalízm) Spanish: liberalismo (es) m Swedish: liberalism (sv) c Ukrainian: лібералізм (uk) (liberalizm) Vietnamese: chủ nghĩa tự do (vi) (主義自由)

political movement

Albanian: liberalizëm (sq) m Arabic: لِيبْرَالِيَّة f (librāliyya) Aragonese: liberalismo m Armenian: լիբերալիզմ (hy) (liberalizm), ազատականություն (hy) (azatakanutʻyun) Asturian: lliberalismu m Azerbaijani: liberalizm Belarusian: лібералі́зм m (libjeralízm) Bengali: উদারনীতিবাদ (udarnitibad) Bulgarian: либерали́зъм (bg) m (liberalízǎm) Burmese: လစ်ဘရယ်ဝါဒ (lacbha.raiwada.) Catalan: liberalisme m Chinese: Hakka: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (chhṳ-yù chú-ngi) Hokkien: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (chū-iû chú-gī) Mandarin: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (zh) (zìyóuzhǔyì) Czech: liberalizmus (cs) m Danish: liberalisme (da) Dutch: liberalisme (nl) n Esperanto: liberalismo (eo) Estonian: liberalism (et) Faroese: liberalisma f Finnish: liberalismi (fi) French: libéralisme (fr) m Galician: liberalismo (gl) m Georgian: ლიბერალიზმი (ka) (liberalizmi) German: Liberalismus (de) m Greek: φιλελευθερισμός (el) m (fileleftherismós), λιμπεραλισμός (el) m (limperalismós) Hebrew: לִיבֶּרָלִיזְם (he) m (liberalízm) Hindi: उदारतावाद m (udārtāvād) Hungarian: liberalizmus (hu) Icelandic: frjálshyggja f Ido: liberalismo (io) Indonesian: liberalisme (id) Irish: liobrálachas m Italian: liberalismo (it) m Jamaican Creole: liberalizim Japanese: 自由主義 (ja) (じゆうしゅぎ, jiyūshugi) Kazakh: либерализм (liberalizm) Khmer: សេរីនិយម (seerəy niyum) Korean: 자유주의(自由主義) (ko) (jayujuui) Kyrgyz: либерализм (liberalizm) Lao: ເສຣີນິຍົມ (sē rī ni nyom), ເສລີນິຍົມ (sē lī ni nyom) Latin: līberālismus m Latvian: liberālisms m Lithuanian: liberalizmas (lt) m Macedonian: либерализам m (liberalizam) Malagasy: liberalisma (mg) Malay: liberalisme Mirandese: liberalismo m Mongolian: либерализм (mn) (liberalizm) Norwegian: Bokmål: liberalisme (no) m Nynorsk: liberalisme Persian: لیبرالیسم (fa) (liberâlism) Polish: liberalizm (pl) m Portuguese: liberalismo (pt) m Romanian: liberalism (ro) n Russian: либерали́зм (ru) m (liberalízm) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: либералѝзам m Roman: liberalìzam (sh) m Slovak: liberalizmus m Slovene: liberalizem (sl) m Spanish: liberalismo (es) m Swedish: liberalism (sv) c Tajik: либерализм (liberalizm) Thai: เสรีนิยม (th) (sěe-rii-ní-yom) Turkish: liberalizm (tr) Turkmen: liberalizm Ukrainian: лібералі́зм (uk) m (liberalízm) Uzbek: liberalizm (uz) Vietnamese: chủ nghĩa tự do (vi) (主義自由) Welsh: rhyddfrydiaeth f Yiddish: ליבעראַליזם (liberalizm)

economic theory

Armenian: լիբերալիզմ (hy) (liberalizm) Chinese: Mandarin: 自由主義 / 自由主义 (zh) (zìyóuzhǔyì) Czech: liberalizmus (cs) m Finnish: liberalismi (fi) Galician: liberalismo (gl) m Greek: φιλελευθερισμός (el) m (fileleftherismós), λιμπεραλισμός (el) m (limperalismós) Indonesian: liberalisme (id) Polish: liberalizm (pl) m Portuguese: liberalismo (pt) m Russian: либерали́зм (ru) m (liberalízm) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: либералѝзам m Roman: liberalìzam (sh) m Spanish: liberalismo (es) m Swedish: nyliberalism (sv) c, marknadsliberalism (sv) c

See also

• free market

Anagrams

• Mirabellis

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French libéralisme. Equivalent to liberal +‎ -ism.

Noun

liberalism n (uncountable)

1. liberalism

Declension

Declension of liberalism

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	liberalism	liberalismul
genitive-dative	liberalism	liberalismului
vocative	liberalismule

Related terms

• liberal

Swedish

Etymology

By surface analysis, liberal +‎ -ism

Noun

liberalism c

1. liberalism; quality of being liberal; political movement based on personal freedom

Declension

Declension of liberalism

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	liberalism	liberalisms
	definite	liberalismen	liberalismens
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

Related terms

• liberal

References

• liberalism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• liberalism in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• liberalism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)