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elitism.

The belief that a society or system should be run by an elite.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɪˈliːtɪzəm//eɪˈliːtɪzəm/
  1. The belief that a society or system should be run by an elite.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The superior attitude or behaviour associated with an elite.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *léǵeti Proto-Italic *legō Latin legō Latin ēligō Latin ēlēctus Vulgar Latin *exlectus? Old French eslitbor. Middle English elit English elite Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English elitism From elite + -ism. First attested in the 1930s.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.