bothsidesism
/bəʊθˈsaɪd.zɪ.zəm/
"bothsidesism" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bothsidesism” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tendency to treat all policy debates as if the opposing sides present equally strong arguments, or are equally valid or equally dangerous.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bothsidesism · bothsidesism · English
bothsidesism · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bothsidesism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bəʊθˈsaɪd.zɪ.zəm/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bothsidesism” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bothsidesism is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /bəʊθˈsaɪd.zɪ.zəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A tendency to treat all policy debates as if the opposing sides present equally strong arguments, or are equally valid or equally dangerous.".
Zero misspellings are on record for bothsidesism in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From both sides + -ism. The correct English form is bothsidesism, spelled B-O-T-H-S-I-D-E-S-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1A tendency to treat all policy debates as if the opposing sides present equally strong arguments, or are equally valid or equally dangerous.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bothsidesism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonym: view from nowhere
And the reason is that too much of the news media still can't break with bothsidesism — the almost pathological determination to portray politicians and their programs as being equally good or equally bad, no matter how ludicrous that pretense becomes.
Etymology
From both sides + -ism.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.