whataboutery

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one's opponent of similar or worse faults.
  2. Protesting at inconsistency; refusing to act in one instance unless similar action is taken in other similar instances.

Pronunciation

/wɒtəˈbaʊtəɹi/ /wʌt-/

Word forms

whataboutery whatabouteries

Etymology

From what about + -ery. Originally used in describing political discourse during the Northern Ireland troubles, it has also found use in discussions of the origins of other prolonged sectarian conflicts, such as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.