Socialism

How to spell socialism

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce socialism

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does socialism mean?

1. nounA political and economic system in which the means of production and distribution are owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Socialism in a sentence

• The lecturer compared socialism with free-market capitalism.

• The party's manifesto leaned heavily toward democratic socialism.

Where does socialism come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin socius, meaning 'companion', 'partner', or 'ally', the same root that gives us 'society', 'social', and 'associate'. From socius came the adjective socialis, 'relating to companionship or fellowship', and the spelling trap lives right there: the 'ci' is pronounced like 'sh', a hangover from that Latin form. The modern political sense was assembled in the early nineteenth century, with the noun appearing in French as socialisme and in English around the 1830s, particularly in the writings of followers of Robert Owen and the French reformers. The '-ism' ending was added to mark it as a system of belief, just as in 'capitalism' or 'liberalism'. Because the word is built so transparently from 'social' plus '-ism', the surest way to remember the spelling is to write 'social' first and then add the ending.

How the word is built

• soci- (from Latin socius: companion, ally)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ism (noun suffix denoting a doctrine or system)