stoicism means A school of philosophy popularized during the Roman Empire that emphasized reason as a means of understanding the natural state of things, or logos, and as a means of freeing oneself from emotional distress. It carries an Arena rating of 1799, earned across 87 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stoicism ranks #382 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #558 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #618 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,072 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
stoicism is pronounced /ˈstəʊɪsɪzəm/.
Why “stoicism” is a great word
STOICISM — [Noun] A philosophy, originating in ancient Greece and prominent in Rome, that teaches the cultivation of virtue and resilience through reason, acceptance of nature's order, and mastery over destructive emotions. From Latin stoicismus, from Greek stoikos (pertaining to the Stoa), from stoa (porch), specifically the Stoa Poikilē (Painted Porch) in Athens where Zeno of Citium taught. First attested in English in the 1620s. Unlike "apathy" (which implies a vacancy of feeling) or "epicureanism" (which elevates refined pleasure as the highest good), Stoicism is the active governance of the self through disciplined understanding. It is the steadying breath before a calamity, the weathered farmer tending his field under a cold sky, and the patient enduring pain without permitting it to become suffering—a practice not of denying the storm, but of learning to stand unshaken within it.
Etymology
From Latin stōicismus. By surface analysis, stoic + -ism. First attested in the 1620s.
noun
- A school of philosophy popularized during the Roman Empire that emphasized reason as a means of understanding the natural state of things, or logos, and as a means of freeing oneself from emotional distress.
- A real or pretended indifference to pleasure or pain; insensibility; impassiveness.
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.
- stoicity 71% match — Stoicism. vs stoicism →
- zenonism 66% match — The philosophy of Zeno of Citium; stoicism. vs stoicism →
- stoicist 65% match — A proponent of stoicism. vs stoicism →
- neostoicism 57% match — A Lipsian philosophical movement, originating in the late 16th century, that sought to combine the beliefs of stoicism and Christianity. vs stoicism →
- apatheia 56% match — A state of mind in Stoic philosophy in which one is free from emotional disturbance; the freedom from all passions. vs stoicism →
- epictetian 54% match — Of or relating to the Ancient Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus (AD 55–AD 135). vs stoicism →
- stolidity 51% match — The property of being stolid; unemotionality. vs stoicism →
- stoic 50% match — Proponent of stoicism, a school of thought, from in 300 B.C.E. up to about the time of Marcus Aurelius, who holds that by cultivating an understanding of the logos, or natural law, one can be free of suffering. vs stoicism →