communism

English

 communism on Wikipedia

The red flag.

Alternative forms

• Communism

Etymology

A borrowing from French communisme, which was formed from commun (“common”) (from Latin commūnis) and the suffix -isme (“-ism”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

communism (countable and uncountable, plural communisms)

1. Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.

   Synonym: (dated, rare) aspheterism

   • 1932, D. H. Lawrence, The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Edited by A. Huxley‎, page 219:

     I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war and squalor and found a little colony where there shall be no money but a sort of communism as far as necessaries of life go, and some real decency.

2. Any political social system that implements a communist political philosophy.
3. The international socialist society where classes, money, and the state no longer exist.
4. (rare) Readiness to share scientific findings (the first of the Mertonian norms).
   • 2022 January 26, Liam Kofi Bright, Remco Heesen, “To Be Scientific Is To Be Communist”, in Social Epistemology, volume 37, number 3, →DOI:

     A recent survey of 633 South Korean scientists found not only that communism was the Mertonian norm they thought most respected in practice (Kim and Kim 2018, 9), but also that younger scientists’ replies showed evidence of ‘mounting tension between the commercialisation of academic science and the norm of communalism’ (Kim and Kim 2018, 19). Our focus on scientific communism and its relationship to commercial research may thus reflect the concerns of working scientists.

Usage notes

• See also the definitions of Communism.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Further reading

• "communism" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 73.