materialism.

1. An outlook that gives excessive importance to money, possessions, or material comfort.

2. The view that reality is fundamentally physical rather than independent mind or spirit.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• consumer materialism
• rampant materialism

On the page

The novel criticizes the materialism of the prosperous suburb.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, explanation. Commonness: moderately common.