Word

dadaism

noun C1

UK /ˈdɑːdɑːɹɪzəm/

US /ˈdɑːdɑːɪzəm/

Meanings

noun

An avant-garde art and literary movement (c. 1916–1920s) known for rejecting traditional artistic values and embracing absurdity, chance, and protest.

dadaism: An avant-garde art and literary movement (c. 1916–1920s) known for rejecting traditional artistic values and embrac…

noun

A style of artwork, writing, or performance that is deliberately nonsensical or anti-traditional in a way associated with that movement.

dadaism: A style of artwork, writing, or performance that is deliberately nonsensical or anti-traditional in a way associate…

Definition

Dadaism is an early 20th-century art movement that rejected traditional aesthetics through playful, anti-rational, and often absurd works.

Dadaism began around World War I as a rebellious response to social and cultural conventions. It used irony, nonsense, and unexpected materials to challenge what people considered “real” art. Dadaist works often aim to shock or provoke thought by breaking rules of logic, taste, and meaning. The movement influenced later modern art, including surrealism and conceptual art.

Examples

I wrote my thesis on how Dadaism turned provocation into a serious artistic strategy.
You can see Dadaism in the way the piece uses chance and contradiction instead of a clear narrative.
He dismissed the installation as Dadaism, but he still couldn’t stop looking at it.
She traced the collage techniques in the exhibition back to Dadaism and its radical experiments.
They argued that Dadaism wasn’t just nihilism; it was a pointed critique of cultural complacency.

Common mistake

Learners sometimes capitalize it in a general sense ("Dadaism" as a style) when it is more natural to use lowercase ("dadaism") for the style and uppercase mainly for the historical movement.