partisanship

noun

par·​ti·​san·​ship ˈpär-tə-zən-ˌship 

-sən-,

-ˌzan-,

 chiefly British  ˌpär-tə-ˈzan-

: the quality or state of being partisan : strong and sometimes blind adherence to a particular party, faction, cause, or person

political partisanship

The Court is so riven by partisanship that justices even pick their law clerks in ways influenced by ideology …

—Anthony Lewis

The succession of Civil War, Reconstruction and the Gilded Age was marked by bitter partisanship, endemic corruption, appalling violence and a general sense that democracy was failing.

—Jon Grinspan

Synonyms

• bias
• favor
• nonobjectivity
• one-sidedness
• parti pris
• partiality
• ply
• prejudice
• tendentiousness

Examples of partisanship in a Sentence

partisanship can discourage any serious search for the truth

there's a pervasive partisanship in the company that prevents it from acknowledging that other companies are outpacing it with innovative ideas

Recent Examples on the Web

Key to Ballmer’s approach is avoiding any appearance of partisanship. —Kyle Khan-Mullins, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024

This behavior can look like partisanship, a charge Trump levied while president. —Christopher S. Chivvis, Foreign Affairs, 14 Oct. 2024

The exact weight that the most recent presidential result gets relative to the second-most recent is decided by our model based on what has best predicted districts' future partisanship in the past. —G. Elliott Morris, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2024

Yet his wholesale partisanship has driven a split within the Tesla community that broadly skews progressive. —Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 7 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1798, in the meaning defined above