-ism
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
-ism
▶suffix forming nouns.
- 1 denoting an action or its result: baptism.
■ denoting a state or quality: barbarism.
- 2 denoting a system, principle, or ideological movement: Anglicanism.
■ denoting a basis for prejudice or discrimination: racism.
- 3 denoting a peculiarity in language: colloquialism.
- 4 denoting a pathological condition: alcoholism.
– origin from Fr. -isme, via L. from Gk -ismos, -isma.
'-ism' also found in these Oxford entries:
anarchism
- animism
- astigmatism
- autism
- Babism
- Baha'i
- bruxism
- cryptorchidism
- daltonism
- deism
- diabolism
- Docetism
- erotism
- erythrism
- fideism
- geotropism
- hedonism
- henotheism
- holism
- homeomorphism
- ism
- -ist
- malapropism
- Manichaeism
- masochism
- meliorism
- metabolism
- metasomatism
- monotheism
- myalism
- narcissism
- nihilism
- pantheism
- parachronism
- revanchism
- saturnism
- Shiite
- solipsism
- theism
- tropism
- tychism
