Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A belief that the meaning of life and one's personal fulfillment lie in the future and not in the present or past.
  • noun An artistic movement originating in Italy around 1910 whose aim was to express the energetic, dynamic, and violent quality of contemporary life, especially as embodied in the motion and force of modern machinery.
  • noun Christianity A belief that biblical prophecies, especially those contained in the book of Revelation, will be literally fulfilled at some point in the future.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Painting) A movement or phase of post-impressionism (which see, below).
  • noun A point of view that finds meaning or fulfillment in the future rather than in the past or present. The philosophy of a futurist.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An early 20th century avant-garde art movement focused on speed, the mechanical, and the modern, which took a deeply antagonistic attitude to traditional artistic conventions; (originated by F.T. Marinetti, among others).
  • noun The study and prediction of possible futures.
  • noun Judaism The Jewish expectation of the messiah in the future rather than recognizing him in the presence of Christ.
  • noun Christianity Eschatological interpretations associating some Biblical prophecies with future events yet to be fulfilled, including the Second Coming.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an artistic movement in Italy around 1910 that tried to express the energy and values of the machine age
  • noun the position that the meaning of life should be sought in the future

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From future +‎ -ism.

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Examples

  • A rude person might say that futurism is about feeding inspirational received truths to businessmen and telling them it will help them make more money.

    SF is Dead! Long Live SF! Lou Anders 2007

  • A rude person might say that futurism is about feeding inspirational received truths to businessmen and telling them it will help them make more money.

    Archive 2007-07-01 Lou Anders 2007

  • A number of U.S. colleges and universities now provide courses in futurism, several of them award degrees and one Australian university even plans to offer a doctorate.

    What do Futurists Really Know? | Impact Lab 2006

  • It’s clear that European firms tend to be more interested in futurism — which they often call foresight analysis — than are Americans.

    What do Futurists Really Know? | Impact Lab 2006

  • The 20th century is coming to a close and as such, talking about the 21st is not idly engaging in futurism.

    Poland and the Twenty-First Century 1997

  • "Target," an astonishing piece of visionary futurism from the Russian director Alexander Zeldovich, was complemented by the childlike delight that attends nearly every moment of

    NYT > Home Page By A. O. SCOTT 2011

  • On the whole, Brasini largely eschewed the 'futurism' in vogue during the Fascist period (and his career began and ended long before and after that era), and even submitted (for better or worse) some sketches for a competition to design a Palace of Soviets in Moscow.

    The Modern Baroque of Armando Brasini 2009

  • Generally, the musicians were influenced by avant-garde movements such as futurism and constructivism as well as by the literature of science fiction and existentialism.

    Warren Ellis » Links for 2010-01-26 2010

  • Another great public interview on the WELL's public Inkwell conference starts today: Bruce Sterling is being interviewed about his new book, "Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years," which is a fantastic read that puts previous attempts at this kind of futurism, [cough Toffler cough] to shame:

    Boing Boing: December 29, 2002 - January 4, 2003 Archives 2002

  • I’ve always loved the idea of retro-futurism, which is probably why I was somewhat excited when Robert Rodriguez was toying around with making a live-action Jetsons movie.

    Tomorrowland: The Movie | /Film 2008

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