1. modern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique: "a strange mix of nostalgia and modernism"
▪ a style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms: "by the post-war period, modernism had become part of art history"
▪ a movement towards modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas, especially in the Roman Catholic Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.