Noun

(uncountable) The state of being rural.

(countable) A rural characteristic.

Noun

Advocacy of rural life instead of urbanism or city living.

*{{quote-book

, year=1998 , author=Nels Anderson & Raffaele Rauty , title=On hobos and homelessness , chapter=Urbanism as a way of life citation , isbn=0226019675, 9780226019673 , page=277 , passage=Ruralism conserves its isolation,... }}

*{{quote-book

, year=2001 , author=Mathew Humphrey , title=Political theory and the environment: a reassessment , chapter=1 citation , isbn=0714681873, 9780714681870 , page=24 , passage=...'By "ruralism " I mean the glorification of country life, and a dissatisfaction with urbanism... }}

Rural living.

*{{quote-book, year=1894, author=Mrs. Humphry Ward, title=Marcella, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=Here, for the first time, had Marcella been brought face to face with the agricultural world as it is--no stage ruralism , but the bare fact in one of its most pitiful aspects. }}

*{{quote-book, year=1975, author=, title=Civilization and Beyond, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=At the end of the cycle Roman culture was turning its back upon ruralism and moving into a culture that was to be chiefly urban during an entire millennium. }}

The state or quality of being rustic.

* {{quote-news, year=1994, date=April 8, author=Peter Margasak, title=Kahil El'Zabar, Malachi Favors, Billy Bang, work=Chicago Reader citation

, passage=The beautifully hypnotic patterns that have become an earmark, of the Ritual Trio are well suited to Bang's varied solo flights; on the album's affecting "Pedro," Bang's rough violin scrapes convey a backwoodsy ruralism , recalling the rootsy fiddle playing of southern prewar black string bands, while the title track with its propulsive near-swing finds him putting out a wild, Ornette-ish sound splash. }}

* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=September 8, author=David Hajdu, title=Tenor of the Times, work=New York Times citation

, passage=He had a robust earthiness that signified authenticity, especially to Americans of the postwar era who prized ruralism and took vernacular artists to be truer, more legitimate, than trained urban professionals. }}

(countable) A rural idiom or expression.