noun modern practice; a thing of recent date; ·esp., a modern usage or mode of expression.
2. modernism ·add. ·noun certain methods and tendencies which, in biblical questions, apologetics, and the theory of dogma, in the endeavor to reconcile the doctrines of the roman catholic church with the conclusions of modern science, replace the authority of the church by purely subjective criteria;
so called officially by pope pius x.