Definition of declinist in English:
declinist
noundɪˈklʌɪnɪstdəˈklīnəst
A person who believes that a particular country, society, or institution is in a state of significant and possibly irreversible decline.
the contents of his new book might induce declinists to reconsider their narrative of doom
Example sentencesExamples
- Declinists also identify a loss in the power and influence over society that public intellectuals have.
- The declinists of the late 1980s took aim at the spirit of national self-confidence.
- I disagree with declinists who simplistically portray our age.
- I don't think of myself as a declinist, but the salience of the alliance we are leading is fading fast.
- He was a declinist who thought that capitalism's destructive energies would sweep away the heroic virtues that built it.
- I have sometimes been marked down as a declinist, but this label misses the point.
- Recognizing these risks is not a matter of being a declinist.
- Though the pessimism of the declinists was exaggerated they had pointed to real trends.
- I am an optimist, not a declinist.
adjectivedɪˈklʌɪnɪstdəˈklīnəst
Characterized by or holding the belief that a country, society, or institution is in decline.
the declinist point of view
Example sentencesExamples
- It is these declinist narratives that are responsible for stirring up skepticism.
- Our present system of housing and caring for elders is declinist to the very marrow of its bones.
- My use of declinist terminology notwithstanding, I do not necessarily share the pessimism.
- Despite dozens of cycles of declinist foreboding, the country has resolutely refused to decay.
- The administration does not need to be declinist to make more modest assessments of power.
- His political analysis was declinist: a great nation had fallen from its proper condition.
- The influence of the declinist argument was also apparent in the 1992 election campaign.
- The chapter acknowledges the compelling explanatory power of the declinist thesis.
- This sentiment was easily dismissed as declinist.
- The declinist debate does not shed much light on Japan's role internationally.