How to Use primitivism in a Sentence

primitivism

noun
  • What attracts them is the primitivism, redeemed by charm.
    Dan Neil, WSJ, 6 Jan. 2022
  • An instruction on joining us in our vision for the future, a return to primitivism.
    Megan Armstrong, Billboard, 25 Oct. 2017
  • The Left has contempt for nationalism, seeing in it intellectual and moral primitivism at best, and the road to fascism at worst.
    Dennis Prager, National Review, 12 Sep. 2017
  • Sonic Youth fans will be pleased to hear the elements of scuzz noise and high-art primitivism of that band injected into attitudinal riffs with sing-along charm of Talon's song.
    John Adamian, courant.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • The wide selection of Nadelman items alone — perhaps the peak of Kirstein’s often erratic taste in the visual arts — is worth the visit to this gathering: modernism meets primitivism meets classicism.
    Alastair MacAulay, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2018
  • A lot of students learn about history through art, and the narrative of anything related to Africa and Polynesia and indigenous America is still laden with this notion of primitivism.
    New York Times, 14 July 2017
  • Some, inspired by Netflix’s recent thriller about Ted Kaczynski, have embraced the Unabomber’s nihilist primitivism.
    Sam Adler-Bell, The New Republic, 24 Sep. 2019
  • What attracts them all is the formula’s stubborn, sentimental primitivism, redeemed by charm.
    Dan Neil, WSJ, 6 Jan. 2022
  • But the argument that a billionaire’s billions are a self-evident credential for national leadership is modern primitivism at its purest.
    Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 15 Oct. 2019
  • Rather than a defense of chest-beating primitivism, the conclusion emphasizes the risks of male self-assertion untethered from purpose and responsibility.
    Samuel Goldman, The Week, 3 Nov. 2021
  • This and the political and military primitivism of some adversaries (e.g., the Islamic State) are reshaping the environment in which airpower operates, and the purposes of this power.
    George Will, National Review, 19 July 2017
  • As outlandish as Luhan may sound, neither her primitivism nor her spiritualism was particularly unusual in her time.
    Rebecca Panovka, The New Yorker, 2 June 2021
  • Fringe beliefs such as anarcho-primitivism or eco-fascism have become familiar ideologies, and figures like Fuentes possess cultish influence.
    Nathan Taylor Pemberton, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Curtis, meanwhile, was inclined to invent scenarios, expunging inconvenient details in order to emphasize a concept of primitivism.
    Teju Cole, New York Times, 13 June 2017
  • Lacking Pippin’s political edge, primitivism and variety, Kane’s more conventional pictures, though sometimes fussy with details, consistently achieve more spatial clarity and light.
    Lance Esplund, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'primitivism.' 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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