terrorism
- 1The pursuit of political aims through unlawful acts of violence directed at people or property.
Governments around the world have struggled to prevent terrorism.
The bombing of the marketplace was condemned as an act of terrorism.
Similarterror
Note
Here the word names a method of political violence rather than the revolutionary regime it began with. It is usually a mass noun, as in terrorism, an act of terrorism or the threat of terrorism. The plural terrorisms exists for the less usual countable use. Simon Jenkins, writing in 2012, shows its typical company: the threat of terrorism weighed against surveillance, security and liberty.
- 2The use of intimidation or bullying tactics to control or coerce others.
The manager ruled through sheer terrorism, and the staff dreaded every meeting.
Their campaign of terrorism in the schoolyard left the younger children afraid to speak up.
Similarintimidation, bullying, coercion, tyranny, terror
Note
This sense widens the political meaning to any rule by intimidation, with no bomb or political aim required. It tends to describe sustained pressure inside a closed setting such as a workplace, a schoolyard or a prison. Gay Community News in 1984 writes of "the usual terrorism of the prison business." Because the word carries the weight of political violence, this use is deliberately strong. Save it for real, ongoing coercion.
- 3The government's use of fear and intimidation as a system of control in Revolutionary France during the Reign of Terror, about 1793 to 1794.
Thousands were sent to the guillotine during the terrorism of those years.
Under the terrorism, even loyal citizens feared a midnight knock at the door.
Similarterror
Note
The word's first English life began in 1795, borrowed from French terrorisme (terreur plus -isme) to name the rule of the Jacobin radicals. Thomas Paine, writing that same year, recalls being a close prisoner "during the reign of terrorism." Here it names a government's own method of rule. Today it belongs to historical writing about the Revolution, and the modern political meaning grew from it.
Practice
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Origin
This comes from French terrorisme, from terreur ("terror") plus -isme, analyzable in English as terror + -ism. The word first appears in English in 1795 in reference to the Jacobin radicals who ruled France during the Reign of Terror.