revisionism

UK/ɹɪˈvɪʒəˌnɪzəm/US/ɹɪˈvɪʒəˌnɪzəm/

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — revision sits at #10,211mostly written

Revisionism is the reworking of an accepted account of the past. Dismissed as revisionism.

Rewriting history from new evidence is the job, so the word is unfair as often as not. Revisionism becomes a real charge only when the evidence is being ignored rather than reread.

Definitions of revisionism

1nounrevisionismThe reworking of an accepted account of the past.C2
“The book was called revisionism and became the standard account.”

revisionism is an approach.

Where it comes from

Latin
revīsiō
French
révision
English
revision
English, today
revisionism

From revision + -ism. revision Borrowed from French révision, from Latin revīsiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

revisionism in the wild

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account.
Historical revisionism
One form of historical revisionism involves denying the moral significance or accuracy of the historical record.
Historical revisionism
Holocaust deniers generally do not accept denial as an appropriate description of their activities and use the euphemism revisionism instead.
Holocaust denial
MacKenzie describes Landwehr as an "extreme admirer the fringes of the far-right." MacKenzie connects Landwehr with the contemporary Waffen-SS historical revisionism.
Richard Landwehr
In literature, revisionism is the retelling of a conventional or established narrative with significant variations which deliberately "revise" the view shown in the original work.
Revisionism (fictional)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the revīsiō family

revision

revisionism — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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