noun
- Government. the principle or system of dividing a city, state, etc., into separate administrative regions.
- advocacy of such a principle or system.
- a speech form, expression, custom, or other feature peculiar to or characteristic of a particular area.
- devotion to the interests of one’s own region.
- Literature. the theory or practice of emphasizing the regional characteristics of locale or setting, as by stressing local speech.
- (often initial capital letter) a style of American painting developed chiefly 1930–40 in which subject matter was derived principally from rural areas.
noun
- division of a country into administrative regions having partial autonomy
- advocacy of such division
- loyalty to one’s home region; regional patriotism
- the common interests of national groups, people, etc, living in the same part of the world
- a word, custom, accent, or other characteristic associated with a specific region
1878, originally of Italy, “tendency toward regional loyalties” (opposed to nationalism), from regional + -ism. As “a word or phrase of local use” is from 1953.