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leftish

leftish

1 6.1
Supporting social equality and more government help, but not strongly
  • adjective
  • /ˈlɛtɪʃ/
  • Informal
translation icon : progresista
  • I will probably be an old woman (and I'm 52 now) before the leftish women in my circle understand how they've been played.

Examples

  • By the way, a quintessential old-school leftish personality, Noam Chomsky, just published two articles on the American empire on the internet.

    Blog text (24)
  • A leftish administration won in 1936, headed by Leon Blum.

    Blog text (2)
  • Since you expect some leftish opposition to a part of your post, let me say this.

    Blog text (24)
  • Of course, in America, Buddhists tend to have political views, and mostly leftish ones.

    Blog text (7)
  • The intellectual standards on the right are just atrocious nowadays, even compared with the appalling representation of leftish ideas in politics and the media.

    Blog text (24)
  • By now, serious leftish commentators are very shy to bring up fascism, fully anticipating that any rational element in a discussion would disappear then.

    Blog text (24)
  • Parts of an active role perception, like a distinct motivation to change society and to stand up for the disadvantaged in society, have been associated with leftish political leaning (Lukes, 2003).

    Academic text (2016)
  • It has, but the idea that there's a cabal of climate scientists distorting the temperature data for murky but leftish reasons is too much for me.

    Blog text (34)
  • "This is the sort of case that should make leftish civil libertarians rethink their reflexive antipathy to Scalia and make law-and-order conservatives rethink their reflexive support of the police."

    Blog text (18)
  • Many young voters are attracted to leftish movements that advocate for social justice and equality.

Synonyms

liberal
vsleftish
983 4.4

Having political views that support social change and people's freedoms

is less strongly aligned with those ideas showing only a gentle preference
left
vsleftish
238 4.2

Supporting social equality and change to help more people

is more weakly supportive expressing preference without strong commitment
left-wing
vsleftish
51 3.6

Political ideas that want more equality and social change

is milder in support and lacks the strong reform emphasis of that view
left-of-center
vsleftish
5 6.8

Being slightly left in politics and supporting some social change

tends to support similar views but more weakly and less committed
liberalistic
vsleftish
7.8

To support individual freedom and rights protected by law

is similar but shows only a light favoring of those policies

Antonyms

rightish
  • Informal
8.3

Being slightly supportive of conservative political ideas

How Left

left-wing
51 3.6
leftish
  • Informal
1 6.1

Surface Forms

leftish positive
leftisher comparative
leftishest superlative

Morphology

leftish = left (transparent) = left + ish

The adjective is formed by the productive suffix '-ish' meaning 'somewhat' or 'characteristic of', so the meaning 'somewhat left-wing' is directly derivable from 'left'.

Etymology

Leftish comes from left, the political 'left', plus the ending -ish, which means 'somewhat' or 'a bit', as in smallish or reddish. So leftish describes someone or something that supports left-wing ideas a little, but not strongly.