meliorism

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

When an intern tells a patient that he believes kindness is the best medicine, J.D. tersely interrupts his blue-sky meliorism with a cold splash of reality.

From Salon • Feb. 26, 2026

Nevertheless, I'd posit "Strange New Worlds" is giving Trekkies what they need in 2022, updating Roddenberry's meliorism with a bracing dose of realism, and serving it in a highly devourable form.

From Salon • Jul. 8, 2022

He explained, “In the spirit of American meliorism, the criticism is to make things better, not necessarily because I didn’t like it.”

From New York Times • Mar. 11, 2022

Aiming not at perfection but at improvement, accepting the vagaries of human nature as a premise that policy must accommodate, rather than wish away, meliorism forces a longer, more calibrated approach.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 26, 2016

For, after all, we must never shut our eyes to the actual; and in the world as it is, meliorism, not optimism, is the true opposite of pessimism.

From Post-Prandial Philosophy by Allen, Grant