Skip to main content
anticommunism

anticommunism

1 6.1
Opposition to communism, its ideas, or people who support it
  • noun
  • /ˌæntiˈkɒmjʊnɪzəm/
: anticomunismo
  • Thus, McCarthyism's excesses do not invalidate anticommunism; similarly, the impracticality of Prohibition hardly demonstrates that opposition.
  • communism and anticommunism
  • Anticommunism appeals
  • policies revolved around anticommunism

Examples

  • As the Cold War ends, authoritarianism in the name of anticommunism no longer guarantees unconditional United States backing.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Indeed, anticommunism was such a popular cause that the noncommunist parties used it against each other.

    Academic text (1991)
  • As levels of anticommunism increase, so does support for the United States.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The underlying truth of anticommunism was the deep structure of politics.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The more they turned up the volume of anticommunism, the more uncomfortable the MDF became.

    Academic text (1991)
  • The inability of a social democratic party to elect a single representative to Parliament is also related to anticommunism.

    Academic text (1991)
  • A firm Cold War posture appealed to the vehement anticommunism of many trade unionists.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Particularly since the Vietnam War, often blamed on America's obsession with communism, anticommunism has rarely been fashionable in American intellectual circles.

    Academic text (1996)
  • And therefore, the left has identified its concern with democracy and political independence with rightist anticommunism, declaring that commonality more than difference characterizes the noncommunist polity.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Many politicians have used anticommunism as a rallying point to gain support from their constituents.

How Anticommunist

anticommunism
1 6.1
neutrality
24 4.4

Surface Forms

anticommunism singular

Morphology

anticommunism = communism (transparent) = anti + commun + ism

This is a regular opposition formation: 'anti-' is added to the base noun 'communism' with no major semantic shift.

Etymology

The word anticommunism starts with anti- meaning 'against' and the communism part comes from the same root as common and community, which mean 'shared' or 'belonging to all'. So anticommunism is being 'against' the idea of things being shared by everyone, which is why it means opposition to communism and its supporters.