What does anomy mean?
Anomy is a noun describing a condition in which the accepted rules, values, and norms of a society have broken down or lost their force, leaving people without reliable guidance for their behaviour. It can also describe the corresponding inner experience: a feeling of alienation, rootlessness, or purposelessness that comes when familiar moral signposts disappear. Sociologists have used the term since the nineteenth century to analyse periods of rapid upheaval — wars, revolutions, financial collapses — when institutions fail to hold communities together, while writers and philosophers have applied it to the individual's private disorientation in modern life. The word is a variant spelling of 'anomie', which is today the standard form, particularly in academic contexts following Émile Durkheim's influential work on the subject. Anomy is a formal term, best suited to scholarly, journalistic, or reflective writing about social disorder and existential drift rather than everyday conversation.
nounA state of social instability caused by a breakdown of standards, values, or norms; also, more generally, a sense of personal alienation and purposelessness arising from the loss of guiding values.
- A condition of society in which established norms, laws, or values have broken down or lost their authority.
- A personal state of alienation, purposelessness, or normlessness felt by an individual.
"The economic collapse left entire communities adrift in an anomy that no institution seemed able to address."
"After decades of civil war, the country sank into an anomy in which old loyalties no longer governed conduct."
"He drifted through his first year at university gripped by a quiet anomy, unsure which of the many lives on offer was truly his."
Rarely pluralised; the concept is usually discussed in the singular even when affecting multiple societies.
"Historians have charted several distinct anomies across twentieth-century Europe."
Anomy is one of the rare words whose fate was decided by a spelling: sociologists chose 'anomie' (after Durkheim) over 'anomy' — leaving 'anomy' as the older, now rarer variant of exactly the same concept.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of anomy
Anomy derives from the Greek 'anomia', meaning lawlessness or absence of law, formed from 'a-' ('without') and 'nomos' ('law'). The Greek term appears in ancient texts, notably in the New Testament. It passed into English via Latin and French in the sixteenth century, initially carrying a theological sense of transgression against divine law before acquiring its modern sociological meaning in the nineteenth century. It shares its Greek root with words such as autonomy, economy, and antinomian.
How anomy is actually used
'Anomy' is chiefly a variant of 'anomie', which is the standard spelling in modern sociology following Émile Durkheim. The older spelling 'anomy' persists in some dictionaries and literary usage. The word is formal and academic in register; it is rarely used in casual conversation.
Easily confused with anomy
Enormity means extreme evil or vast scale, whereas anomy refers to the breakdown of norms or values in society.
Anomie is simply the more common spelling of essentially the same word; 'anomy' is a variant form, with 'anomie' preferred in sociology after Durkheim's usage.