pluralism.

1. The coexistence or recognition of multiple groups, perspectives or values.

2. A view that a domain contains multiple irreducible principles, values or kinds of reality.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• social pluralism
• value pluralism

On the page

Social pluralism required institutions to accommodate more than one tradition.

Value pluralism acknowledged conflict among important aims.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. 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: institutional and conceptual change, philosophical orientation, qualification of recurrence and degree. Disciplines: academic writing, philosophy, cross-disciplinary analysis. Commonness: moderately common.