romanticism.

1. An artistic and intellectual movement or approach emphasizing imagination, emotion, individuality and related responses to nature or experience.

2. An idealized, adventurous or strongly imaginative emotional outlook.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• literary romanticism
• romanticism in art

On the page

Literary romanticism shaped the work’s attention to imagination and individual experience.

The essay distinguished romanticism in art from a simple love-story subject.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. 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: artistic orientation, figurative interpretation, life writing, narrative knowledge. Disciplines: literary writing, literary analysis, advanced general English. Commonness: moderately common.