anomic

an·o·mie or an·o·my  (n-m)

n.

1. Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.

2. Alienation and purposelessness experienced by a person or a class as a result of a lack of standards, values, or ideals: "We must now brace ourselves for disquisitions on peer pressure, adolescent anomie and rage" (Charles Krauthammer).

---

[French, from Greek anomi, lawlessness, from anomos, lawless : a-, without; see a-¹ + nomos, law; see nem- in Indo-European roots.]

---

a·nomic (-nmk, -nmk) adj.

Thesaurus

Adj.

1.

anomic - socially disoriented; "anomic loners musing over their fate"; "we live in an age of rootless alienated people" alienated, disoriented unoriented - not having position or goal definitely set or ascertained; "engaged in unoriented study"; "unoriented until she looked at the map"