relativism
/ɹˈɛlətɪvˌɪzəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.68 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We thus reach a position of extreme relativism: different 'truths' may be useful in different historical situations, and it is quite possible that any truth is valid only for a particular epoch or social class."
- "Following Gilbert Harman’s lead, my own formulation of relativism about the normative domain was based on the classic examples of thoroughgoing relativisms drawn from physics."
Etymology
Etymology tree English relative 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 relativism From relative + -ism.