Radicality

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The characteristic of being profoundly different or transformative involves a commitment to substantial change in beliefs or practices
2. It denotes the extent of pursuing deep or extreme alterations in thoughts or societal structures
3. The quality of representing or involving thorough and complete change from the usual or traditional

Etymology: "Radicality" is a plain formation: "radical" with the suffix "-ity" attached, meaning the quality or state of being radical. The suffix carries a long ancestry, traceable back through Latin "-itas" and Old French "-ite" to a Proto-Indo-European ending, but the word itself is English, built from "radical" and "-ity" in English. The more useful part of the story is in "radical" itself. It comes from Latin "radix", meaning root, and the sense of going to the root of things gave rise to the political meaning of wanting thorough, fundamental change. "Radicality" inherits that sense, so it describes how far a view reaches toward the root of an issue, and in its common use, how extreme that view is.

Synonyms: extremism, fundamentalism, advocacy, reformism, revolutionary nature

Antonyms: moderation, conservatism, traditionalism, restraint, caution