partisanship

English

Alternative forms

• partizanship (dated)

Etymology

Etymology tree

English partisan

Proto-Germanic *skapjaną

Proto-Germanic *-skapiz

Proto-West Germanic *-skapi

Old English -sċiepe

Middle English -schipe

English -ship

English partisanship

From partisan + -ship.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɑːtɪˈzænʃɪp/, /ˈpɑːtɪˌzænʃɪp/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹtəzənˌʃɪp/, [ˈpɑɹɾəzənˌʃɪp]

  • Audio (New Jersey):

    (file)

• (Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpɐːtɪzənʃɪp/, [ˈpɐːɾɪzənʃɪp]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpɐːtəzɛnʃəp/, [ˈpɐːɾəzɛnʃəp]

Noun

partisanship (countable and uncountable, plural partisanships)

1. An inclination to be partisan or biased; partiality.

   Synonym: partisanry

   • 2023 April 1, Jonathan Weisman, “Trump and Fox News, Twin Titans of Politics, Hit With Back-to-Back Rebukes”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     In this moment of constant campaigning and tribal partisanship, even the courts have had difficulty puncturing the ideological bubbles that Mr. Trump and Fox News pundits have created.

   • 2025, James N. Druckman et al., Unequal Punishment?: Partisan and Racial Biases in Criminal Sentencing‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 February 2026, page 2:

     We focus on how partisanship and race influence sentencing decisions. Partisanship has been shown to shape many political and social decisions (Iyengar et al. 2019) while racial disparities in sentencing are well-documented (United States Sentencing Commission 2023).

Derived terms

• hyperpartisanship

Translations

an inclination to be partisan

• Bulgarian: пристрасност f (pristrasnost)
• Catalan: partidisme m
• Czech: stranictví n, přívrženectví n
• Dutch: partijdigheid (nl) f
• Finnish: puolueellisuus (fi)
• French: partisanisme (fr) m, esprit de parti (fr) m, partialité (fr) f
• Galician: partidismo m
• German: Parteinahme (de) f, Parteiergreifung f, Parteilichkeit f
• Gothic: 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 f (wiljahalþei)
• Greek: κομματισμός (el) m (kommatismós)
• Hindi: पक्षपातपूर्ण (hi) (pakṣapātpūrṇ)
• Italian: partigianeria (it) f
• Kazakh: партиялылық (partiälylyq)
• Polish: stronniczość (pl) f
• Portuguese: partidarismo m, partidismo m
• Russian: парти́йность (ru) f (partíjnostʹ), полити́ческие симпа́тии f pl (politíčeskije simpátii)
• Spanish: partidismo (es) m

partiality — see partiality