anomie. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

anomie

SYLLABICATION:	an·o·mie
PRONUNCIATION:	n-m
VARIANT FORMS:	or an·o·my
NOUN:	1. Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values. 2. Alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals: “We must now brace ourselves for disquisitions on peer pressure, adolescent anomie and rage” (Charles Krauthammer, Time May 8, 1989).
ETYMOLOGY:	French, from Greek anomi, lawlessness, from anomos, lawless : a-, without; see a–¹ + nomos, law; see nem- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	a·nomic (-nmk, -nmk) —ADJECTIVE


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.