"newspeak" meaning in English

See newspeak in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈn(j)uːspiːk/ Audio: en-au-newspeak.ogg [Australia] Forms: newspeaks [plural]
Etymology: From Newspeak, a word coined by George Orwell. Equivalent to new + speak. Etymology templates: {{m|en|Newspeak}} Newspeak, {{af|en|new|speak}} new + speak Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} newspeak (usually uncountable, plural newspeaks)
  1. Use of ambiguous, misleading, or euphemistic words in order to deceive the listener, especially by politicians and officials. Wikipedia link: George Orwell Tags: uncountable, usually Categories (topical): Language Translations (use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners): 新話 (Chinese Mandarin), 新话 (xīnhuà) (Chinese Mandarin), newspeak [masculine] (Czech), novořeč [feminine] (Czech), Nieuwspraak [feminine] (Dutch), uuskieli (Finnish), novlangue [feminine] (French), Neusprech [neuter] (German), שִׂיחָדָשׁ (siẖádash) [masculine] (Hebrew), neolingua [feminine] (Italian), новоговор (novogovor) [masculine] (Macedonian), nowomowa [feminine] (Polish), novilíngua [feminine] (Portuguese), новоя́з (novojáz) [masculine] (Russian), novogovor [masculine] (Serbo-Croatian), neolengua [feminine] (Spanish), nyspråk [neuter] (Swedish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for newspeak meaning in English (6.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Newspeak"
      },
      "expansion": "Newspeak",
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "new",
        "3": "speak"
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      "expansion": "new + speak",
      "name": "af"
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  "etymology_text": "From Newspeak, a word coined by George Orwell. Equivalent to new + speak.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "ref": "1984, Jonathon Green, “Introduction”, in Newspeak: A Dictionary of Jargon, London: Routledge & Kegal Paul plc, ISBN 978-0-7100-9685-2; republished Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-73271-0, page ix",
          "text": "Yet no-one would deny that a form of ‘newspeak’, however altered, is all too prevalent. Where [George] Orwell’s society was governed by the stick, we are offered the carrot. The truncation of the language on ‘Airstrip One’ was a logical response to the harsh social engineering that engendered it. The soothing, delusory world of ‘equality’, of much-touted ‘democracy’, has created a ‘newspeak’ all its own. Rather than shorten the language it is infinitely broadened; instead of curt monosyllables, there are mellifluous, calming phrases, designed to allay suspicions, modify facts and divert one’s attention from difficulties."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Edward Możejko, “Between Symbolist Decline and the Rise of Newspeak: Mapping the Dynamics of the Russian Literary Avant-Garde”, in Christian Berg, Frank Durieux, Geert Lernout, editors, The Turn of the Century: Modernism and Modernity in Literature and the Arts/Le tournant du siècle : Le modernisme et la modernité dans la littérature et les arts (European Cultures; 3), Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Walter de Gruyter, page 327",
          "text": "[T]he last stage in the evolution of the Russian literary avant-garde and its final demise was marked by its sharp and growing conflict with the rise of newspeak. The concept of newspeak has been with us now for quite some time. However, it only recently began to be treated as an exponent of a certain cultural vision advanced by sheer and impudent political power. At the same time, it is more than that. Newspeak can be defined as discourse, proper or peculiar to the totalitarian state and transmitted through the manipulative use of language to all sectors and institutions of the state.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2002, Slava Gerovitch, “The Cold War in Code Words: The Newspeak of Soviet Science”, in From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics, Cambridge, Mass., London: MIT Press, page 47",
          "text": "[…] Soviet ideology itself may be more productively viewed as the result of conscious attempts to explicate and rationalize assorted discursive strategies, or mechanisms, of newspeak, in much the same way as grammatical rules are invented to describe diverse linguistic practices.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
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      ],
      "id": "en-newspeak-en-noun-w2UBhzcE",
      "links": [
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        [
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          "euphemistic"
        ],
        [
          "deceive",
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        ],
        [
          "listener",
          "listener"
        ],
        [
          "politician",
          "politician"
        ],
        [
          "official",
          "official"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "word": "新話"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "xīnhuà",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "word": "新话"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "newspeak"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "novořeč"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Nieuwspraak"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "word": "uuskieli"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "novlangue"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Neusprech"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "siẖádash",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "שִׂיחָדָשׁ"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "neolingua"
        },
        {
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "novogovor",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "новоговор"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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          "word": "nowomowa"
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        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
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          ],
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          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "novojáz",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "новоя́з"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "novogovor"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "neolengua"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "nyspråk"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "George Orwell"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈn(j)uːspiːk/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-newspeak.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/78/En-au-newspeak.ogg/En-au-newspeak.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/En-au-newspeak.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "newspeak"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "Newspeak"
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      "expansion": "Newspeak",
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "new",
        "3": "speak"
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      "expansion": "new + speak",
      "name": "af"
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  "etymology_text": "From Newspeak, a word coined by George Orwell. Equivalent to new + speak.",
  "forms": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
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        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms derived from Nineteen Eighty-Four",
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          "ref": "1984, Jonathon Green, “Introduction”, in Newspeak: A Dictionary of Jargon, London: Routledge & Kegal Paul plc, ISBN 978-0-7100-9685-2; republished Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-73271-0, page ix",
          "text": "Yet no-one would deny that a form of ‘newspeak’, however altered, is all too prevalent. Where [George] Orwell’s society was governed by the stick, we are offered the carrot. The truncation of the language on ‘Airstrip One’ was a logical response to the harsh social engineering that engendered it. The soothing, delusory world of ‘equality’, of much-touted ‘democracy’, has created a ‘newspeak’ all its own. Rather than shorten the language it is infinitely broadened; instead of curt monosyllables, there are mellifluous, calming phrases, designed to allay suspicions, modify facts and divert one’s attention from difficulties."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Edward Możejko, “Between Symbolist Decline and the Rise of Newspeak: Mapping the Dynamics of the Russian Literary Avant-Garde”, in Christian Berg, Frank Durieux, Geert Lernout, editors, The Turn of the Century: Modernism and Modernity in Literature and the Arts/Le tournant du siècle : Le modernisme et la modernité dans la littérature et les arts (European Cultures; 3), Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Walter de Gruyter, page 327",
          "text": "[T]he last stage in the evolution of the Russian literary avant-garde and its final demise was marked by its sharp and growing conflict with the rise of newspeak. The concept of newspeak has been with us now for quite some time. However, it only recently began to be treated as an exponent of a certain cultural vision advanced by sheer and impudent political power. At the same time, it is more than that. Newspeak can be defined as discourse, proper or peculiar to the totalitarian state and transmitted through the manipulative use of language to all sectors and institutions of the state.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2002, Slava Gerovitch, “The Cold War in Code Words: The Newspeak of Soviet Science”, in From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics, Cambridge, Mass., London: MIT Press, page 47",
          "text": "[…] Soviet ideology itself may be more productively viewed as the result of conscious attempts to explicate and rationalize assorted discursive strategies, or mechanisms, of newspeak, in much the same way as grammatical rules are invented to describe diverse linguistic practices.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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    },
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/En-au-newspeak.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "word": "新話"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "xīnhuà",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "word": "新话"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "newspeak"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "novořeč"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Nieuwspraak"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "word": "uuskieli"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "novlangue"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Neusprech"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "siẖádash",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "שִׂיחָדָשׁ"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "neolingua"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "novogovor",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "новоговор"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "nowomowa"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "novilíngua"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "novojáz",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "новоя́з"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "novogovor"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "neolengua"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "use of ambiguous words to deceive listeners",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "nyspråk"
    }
  ],
  "word": "newspeak"
}

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.

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