racialism
"racialism" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“racialism” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The belief that humans can be categorized as belonging to distinct races, each race being characterized by fixed and heritable traits.
Corpus desk
Index EN-racialism · racialism · English
racialism · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" 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 | racialism |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “racialism” in English
Rare enough to double-check
racialism is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for racialism, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From racial + -ism. Coined in 1882 based on the older use of "race" as a synonym of "nation, tribe, ethnic group", later senses (from 1890) from the use of "race" for racial categories. The correct English form is racialism, spelled R-A-C-I-A-L-I-S-M.
Definition
- 1The belief that humans can be categorized as belonging to distinct races, each race being characterized by fixed and heritable traits.
- 2Racism, the belief in the existence of different races and that some are superior to others; policies or practices which promote the dominance of one or more races over others.
- 3Tribalism, nationalism.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how racialism appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Racialism is at the heart of nineteenth-century attempts to develop a science of racial difference, but it appears to have been believed by others—like Hegel, before then, and Crummell and many Africans since—who have had no interest in developing scientific theories.
Never mentioning Delany by name, Vashon lambastes the “combatants” for their racialism, insisting that a belief in “a natural distinction between the white and colored races” only legitimates the racism of blacks’ oppressors.
Etymology
From racial + -ism. Coined in 1882 based on the older use of "race" as a synonym of "nation, tribe, ethnic group", later senses (from 1890) from the use of "race" for racial categories.
Synonyms
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.