neoism means A subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, using pseudonyms, pranks, paradoxes, plagiarism, and fakes so as to attempt to defy categorization. It carries an Arena rating of 1216, earned across 85 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, neoism ranks #3,042 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #4,731 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #4,910 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #5,762 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
Why “neoism” is a great word
NEOISM — [Noun] A late 20th-century subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, characterized by the strategic use of pseudonyms, pranks, paradoxes, plagiarism, and fakes to defy categorization. From the prefix neo- (meaning "new") and the suffix -ism (denoting a system, movement, or doctrine). Unlike Dadaism, a defined historical avant-garde with manifestos and anti-war fury, or plagiarism, a straightforward act of unethical theft, neoism is a willfully diffuse praxis where identity and ownership are tactical spoils. It is the collective clatter of a hundred typewriters under the same borrowed name, the gleeful distribution of a fake manifesto for a movement that doesn't exist, and the quiet satisfaction of watching an art critic struggle to pin a prank to a person—a ghost network dedicated to the proposition that authenticity is the most hollow genre of all.
Etymology
From neo- + -ism.
noun
- A subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, using pseudonyms, pranks, paradoxes, plagiarism, and fakes so as to attempt to defy categorization.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- simulationism 59% match — An art movement of the 1980s, somewhat akin to pop art. vs neoism →
- signalism 55% match — An international avant-garde literary and art movement rooted in Serbian culture. vs neoism →
- eonism 55% match — The pretence of being the opposite sex, especially that by a man of being a woman; transvestism. vs neoism →
- beatnikism 54% match — The social and artistic ideas associated with beatniks vs neoism →
- neoprimitivism 54% match — A Russian art movement fusing elements of Cézanne, cubism and futurism with traditional Russian folk art. vs neoism →
- neofolk 54% match — A form of experimental folk music influenced by industrial music. vs neoism →
- neonationalism 54% match — A form of civic nationalism that reacts specifically to the globalization of capital. vs neoism →
- illegalism 54% match — Illegal activity, especially seen as systemic or as part of a general philosophy or ideology. vs neoism →