"doublethink" meaning in English

See doublethink in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: doublethinks [plural]
Etymology: From double + think. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|double|think}} double + think, {{coin|en|George Orwell|in=1949}} Coined by George Orwell in 1949 Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} doublethink (usually uncountable, plural doublethinks)
  1. The holding of two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them as true or correct, without realizing the contradiction. Tags: uncountable, usually Translations (the power of holding two contradictory beliefs): 雙想 (Chinese Mandarin), 双想 (shuāngxiǎng) (Chinese Mandarin), 雙重思想 (Chinese Mandarin), 双重思想 (shuāngchóng sīxiǎng) (Chinese Mandarin), dubbeldenk (Dutch), duoblapenso (Esperanto), doublepensée [feminine] (French), ორაზრი (orazri) (Georgian), Doppeldenk [neuter] (German), דּוּ חוֹשֵׁב (du ḥoshév) [masculine] (Hebrew), duplagondol (Hungarian), kettős/kétlaki gondolkodás/gondolkozás (Hungarian), bispensiero [masculine] (Italian), bipensiero [masculine] (Italian), 二重思考 (alt: にじゅうしこう) (Japanese), dvejamintė [feminine] (Lithuanian), dwójmyślenie [neuter] (Polish), duplipensar [masculine] (Portuguese), duplopensar [masculine] (Portuguese), двоемы́слие (dvojemýslije) [neuter] (Russian), dvomisao (Serbo-Croatian), doblepensar (Spanish), dubbeltänk [neuter] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-doublethink-en-noun-O4kB2AZB Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48

Verb

Forms: doublethinks [present, singular, third-person], doublethinking [participle, present], doublethought [participle, past], doublethought [past]
Etymology: From double + think. Coined by George Orwell in 1949 as part of the Newspeak in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|double|think}} double + think, {{coin|en|George Orwell|in=1949}} Coined by George Orwell in 1949 Head templates: {{en-verb|doublethinks|doublethinking|doublethought}} doublethink (third-person singular simple present doublethinks, present participle doublethinking, simple past and past participle doublethought)
  1. To engage in doublethink. Related terms: cognitive dissonance, compartmentalization
    Sense id: en-doublethink-en-verb-eHjGYHAJ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 42 58

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for doublethink meaning in English (7.9kB)

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          "ref": "1965 May 11, William S. White, “Doctrine of Nonintervention Comes Cropper In Dominica”, in The Morning Record, Meriden-Wallingford, Connecticut, page 4",
          "text": "Any effort by the United States to halt these creeping advances of Communist imperialism became, by the same mad process of double-think, the only kind of \"intervention\" there ever could be.",
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "雙想"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shuāngxiǎng",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "双想"
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          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
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        },
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          "code": "cmn",
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          "roman": "shuāngchóng sīxiǎng",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "双重思想"
        },
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          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "dubbeldenk"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "duoblapenso"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "doublepensée"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "orazri",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "ორაზრი"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Doppeldenk"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "du ḥoshév",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "דּוּ חוֹשֵׁב"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "duplagondol"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "kettős/kétlaki gondolkodás/gondolkozás"
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          "code": "it",
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          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "bispensiero"
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          "alt": "にじゅうしこう",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "二重思考"
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          "lang": "Lithuanian",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
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          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
          "word": "doblepensar"
        },
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          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
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          "word": "dubbeltänk"
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  "wikipedia": [
    "Nineteen Eighty-Four",
    "doublethink"
  ],
  "word": "doublethink"
}

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          "ref": "2014 November 6, M. Dentith, The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories, Springer",
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          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 29, Norman Spinrad, A World Between, Gateway",
          "text": "\"So we both doublethought our way around the inevitable as long as we could because we both really want the same thing and we both have policy problems with our superiors.” “I'm not sure I follow you,” Lindblad said, in a tone of voice[…]",
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        "To engage in doublethink."
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          "ref": "1965 May 11, William S. White, “Doctrine of Nonintervention Comes Cropper In Dominica”, in The Morning Record, Meriden-Wallingford, Connecticut, page 4",
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    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "雙想"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shuāngxiǎng",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "双想"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "雙重思想"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shuāngchóng sīxiǎng",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "双重思想"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shuāngchóng sīxiǎng",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "双重思想"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "dubbeldenk"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "duoblapenso"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "doublepensée"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "orazri",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "ორაზრი"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Doppeldenk"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "du ḥoshév",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "דּוּ חוֹשֵׁב"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "duplagondol"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "kettős/kétlaki gondolkodás/gondolkozás"
    },
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      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bispensiero"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bipensiero"
    },
    {
      "alt": "にじゅうしこう",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "二重思考"
    },
    {
      "code": "lt",
      "lang": "Lithuanian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "dvejamintė"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "dwójmyślenie"
    },
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      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "duplipensar"
    },
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      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "dvojemýslije",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "двоемы́слие"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "dvomisao"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "word": "doblepensar"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "dubbeltänk"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Nineteen Eighty-Four",
    "doublethink"
  ],
  "word": "doublethink"
}

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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "cognitive dissonance"
    },
    {
      "word": "compartmentalization"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2014 November 6, M. Dentith, The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories, Springer",
          "text": "... but, as they believed they had other reasons for supporting the invasion – be they moral, monetary or something else entirely – they doublethunk (or doublethought) it and endorsed the 'evidence' despite its lack of merit.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 29, Norman Spinrad, A World Between, Gateway",
          "text": "\"So we both doublethought our way around the inevitable as long as we could because we both really want the same thing and we both have policy problems with our superiors.” “I'm not sure I follow you,” Lindblad said, in a tone of voice[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in doublethink."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "doublethink",
          "#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Nineteen Eighty-Four",
    "doublethink"
  ],
  "word": "doublethink"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.