bellicism means an inclination to war; warlike policy or behaviour. It carries an Arena rating of 1464, earned across 77 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bellicism ranks #3,548 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #4,449 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #5,342 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #5,955 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
bellicism is pronounced /ˈbɛlɪsɪzm̩/.
Why “bellicism” is a great word
BELLICISM — [Noun] An inclination to war or a doctrine favoring aggressive, warlike behavior. From the Latin bellicus ("warlike, of war") and the suffix -ism (denoting a doctrine or practice). Unlike "pacifism," which denotes a principled rejection of violence, or "militarism," which glorifies military strength as a national ideal, bellicism is the specific, ideological appetite for conflict itself. It is the gleam in the hawk's eye, the clatter of sabers rattled in unison, and the cold calculus that finds more value in a shattered city than a compromised treaty—the conviction that peace is not a state to be nurtured, but a vacuum to be filled.
Etymology
From Latin bellic(us) + -ism.
noun
- An inclination to war; warlike policy or behaviour.e.g.“One cannot understand the causes of the First World War unless one appreciates the degree of bellicism in European society at that time, especially in Central Europe […].” — 1962, Michael Howard, The Causes of Wars, page 271:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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