Meaning & use
materialism
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Meanings
noununcountabledisapproving
A strong focus on owning money and goods, treated as more important than things like kindness, learning or faith.
Grammar: No plural and no article in general statements: materialism is spreading.
Patterns
- the materialism of something
- a culture of materialism
Many parents worry about the materialism of holiday gift-giving.
Her grandfather criticised the materialism of modern life and lived very simply.
Advertising is often blamed for encouraging materialism in children.
noununcountabletechnical
The philosophical view that everything that exists, including the mind, is made of physical matter and its processes.
Grammar: A neutral technical term here, usually contrasted with idealism.
Patterns
- philosophical materialism
- materialism and idealism
In his philosophy class, he argued that materialism cannot fully explain consciousness.
Scientific materialism holds that thoughts arise from brain activity.
Common combinations
- rampant materialism
- The author attacks the rampant materialism of the age.
- crass materialism
- The film mocks the crass materialism of the party guests.
- consumer materialism
- Consumer materialism makes people judge success by what they own.
- reject materialism
- After the trip, they decided to reject materialism and downsize.
- dialectical materialism
- Dialectical materialism is the philosophy behind Marxist theory.
Synonyms and how they differ
- consumerism
- Consumerism describes a social habit of buying and spending, while materialism is the attitude of valuing possessions above other things.
- greed
- Greed is the general desire for more of anything, whereas materialism is specifically about goods and wealth.
- acquisitiveness
- Acquisitiveness is a more formal word for the eagerness to gain possessions and focuses on the urge, not the values behind it.
Opposites
Word family
- materialist noun
- a person who values possessions, or who believes in philosophical materialism
- materialistic adjective
- too interested in money and possessions
- materialistically adverb
- in a way that values possessions
- material noun
- the physical substance something is made of
Commonly confused: materialism or materiality?
materialism vs materiality
Materiality means the quality of being physical, or in law and accounting, being important enough to matter. It does not mean a love of possessions.
Practice
The preacher spoke against the ___ of a society that measures success by the size of a person's house.
Choose one answer.
Materialism names the attitude of valuing possessions above other things. Materials means physical substances, and materialize is a verb that cannot follow 'the'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “materialism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.