How to Use universalism in a Sentence

universalism

noun
Definition of universalismnext
  • Meacham and Lepore are not alone in their concern for the idea of the nation that avoids tribalism and universalism.
    — Grayson Logue, National Review, 10 Aug. 2019
  • As such, Lincoln’s conception of civic virtue is a kind of universalism.
    — Cameron Hilditch, National Review, 18 Sep. 2020
  • Under Labour, Britain would have a larger, deeper state, with a return to universalism at its core.
    — The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
  • But for most of its history this exceptionalism has been a form of self-regarding universalism; in time, the rest of the world would catch up.
    — The Economist, 16 Dec. 2017
  • Those users who are uncomfortable with this universalism are caught in a double bind.
    — Tung-Hui Hu, WIRED, 12 Oct. 2022
  • But universalism is an awkward framework for understanding what drove holy warriors to Bosnia in the first place.
    — Darryl Li, Foreign Affairs, 14 Apr. 2020
  • Whatever the metaphor, there is always a need to push our thinking toward universalism.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Sep. 2020
  • What was distinctive about the BBC was its universalism and its intention to improve people’s lives.
    — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
  • Its universalism is somewhat ironic because the nine-song project is a love letter from Luke, to Luke, a collection borne from a process of deep introspection that spanned the course of six long years.
    — Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 15 Mar. 2021
  • The French establishment sees laïcité as a core proposition of universalism and of the république—a way of preventing social fracture.
    — Rachel Donadio, The Atlantic, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Wyatt sat down with Billboard earlier this year to talk about her new music, her time behind bars and the bittersweet universalism of a broken heart.
    — Dave Brooks, Billboard, 3 Aug. 2023
  • The French ideals of republican universalism, implicit in the language and rituals of the red-robed judge and the black-robed lawyers, are entangled in prejudice and custom.
    — A.o. Scott, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2023
  • The universalism of this challenge, revealed in Johnson’s illness, is its most novel feature.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2020
  • The hardest questions, the deepest conflicts between past and present, identity and universalism, aren’t resolved or even addressed in its 90-minute running time.
    — Ross Douthat, National Review, 20 Aug. 2020
  • The big story with Sloane is that this form of universalism, the idea of collecting books and plants and manuscripts and curious artifacts [into one collection] was rejected in the 19th century.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Race was a taboo topic for decades in France, which is officially committed to a doctrine of colorblind universalism.
    — John Leicester, Sylvie Corbet and Lewis Joly, Anchorage Daily News, 2 July 2023
  • That remains a valuable warning against the naive universalism in the idea that history is inexorably marching toward the triumph of U.S.-style democracy.
    — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 20 Oct. 2021
  • For Berlin, as for Meinecke, there seemed to be no relationship of cause and effect between the war against rationalism, universalism, and natural rights and the war against democracy and its fall in the 20th century.
    — Zeev Sternhell, Slate Magazine, 7 Apr. 2017
  • The watchword is universalism, referring to an abstract notion of citizenship to which all must subscribe.
    — Rachel Donadio, The Atlantic, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Another reason, and perhaps the most deeply rooted, is the French ideal of universalism—the notion that one’s identity as a French citizen transcends race, gender, and religion.
    — Charlotte Kilpatrick, The New Republic, 3 July 2023
  • In those first decades, the Magnum aesthetic was one of humanistic universalism, and photography offered a lingua franca to imagine a new world.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 25 May 2017
  • Imbued with a sense of grandeur, France harks back to the Enlightenment to speak about fighting obscurantism in the world today and proffers its secular universalism as a model for modern societies.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 23 Sep. 2021
  • Brustein’s universalism grew ornerier and more claustrophobic with age.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2023
  • The universalism of the left and cultural nationalism of the right are battering America’s sense of common national purpose.
    — Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Finally, there is Obama's tendency toward universalism, which is a major bone of contention in many quarters.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 19 Jan. 2012
  • For Cowles, the salient features of Darwin’s method are its naturalism and universalism: Darwin understood his method as common not only to all human thought and creation but to living nature itself.
    — Jessica Riskin, The New York Review of Books, 17 June 2020
  • Yet race or colonial studies research departments don't exist in French universities, because they are seen as contrary to French universalism.
    — Arno Pedram, ajc, 21 Apr. 2022
  • There’s a play for universalism here, a bet against identity politics, or extreme partisanship.
    — Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2019
  • The conflict between universalism and particularism is one of the defining features of our time, playing a central role in America’s polarized politics.
    — Bruce Abramson, National Review, 19 Mar. 2021
  • These are people who reject universalism—the conviction that certain ideas and principles have a universal value that transcends nations, borders, bloodlines.
    — Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'universalism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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