iconoclasm
noun
icon·o·clasm ī-ˈkä-nə-ˌkla-zəm 
: the doctrine, practice, or attitude of an iconoclast
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Holbein left Basel for London in 1532, likely impelled by a terror of rampaging iconoclasm—the wholesale destruction of religious imagery and artifacts by overenthusiastic Protestants in the Swiss city. 
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 Over the course of human history, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have destroyed countless masterpieces. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Dec. 2021 But iconoclasm of either variety, the extreme or the facile, will not substantively change most people’s understanding of the pharaohs or of those people who, through excavation, exhibition, or study, ushered them into modernity. Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2022 How the Chinese language and its writing system have weathered the modern waves of iconoclasm and been renewed since the turn of the past century is the subject of Tsu’s book. Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 Part of that was a matter of changing tastes; but there was also a deliberate endeavor of people like de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg to market their iconoclasm. Max Holleran, The New Republic, 14 Dec. 2021 Slender and stooped, Ramin had a gentle manner that belied his ferocious iconoclasm. New York Times, 10 Dec. 2021 His iconoclasm, therefore, carries no weight whatsoever. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021 Bateau’s iconoclasm flows from its ambition to celebrate beef without supporting the industrial system that makes beef production so harmful to the environment. New York Times, 19 Oct. 2021 See More
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 Over the course of human history, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have destroyed countless masterpieces. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Dec. 2021 But iconoclasm of either variety, the extreme or the facile, will not substantively change most people’s understanding of the pharaohs or of those people who, through excavation, exhibition, or study, ushered them into modernity. Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2022 How the Chinese language and its writing system have weathered the modern waves of iconoclasm and been renewed since the turn of the past century is the subject of Tsu’s book. Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 Part of that was a matter of changing tastes; but there was also a deliberate endeavor of people like de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg to market their iconoclasm. Max Holleran, The New Republic, 14 Dec. 2021 Slender and stooped, Ramin had a gentle manner that belied his ferocious iconoclasm. New York Times, 10 Dec. 2021 His iconoclasm, therefore, carries no weight whatsoever. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021 Bateau’s iconoclasm flows from its ambition to celebrate beef without supporting the industrial system that makes beef production so harmful to the environment. New York Times, 19 Oct. 2021 See More Word History
First Known Use
1797, in the meaning defined above
iconoclasm
noun
as in unconventionality
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- unconventionality
- deviation
- deviance
- sectarianism
- apostasy
- schism
- separatism
- discord
- heresy
- infidelity
- heterodoxy
- nonconformity
- defection
- dissension
- scission
- disagreement
- dissention
- dissidence
- dissent
- misconception
- error
- fallacy
- myth
- falsehood
- misbelief
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- orthodoxy
- conformity
- agreement
- conventionality
- conformation