Definition of "phalanstery" []

• A self-sustaining cooperative community of the followers of Fourierism. Also called phalanx. (noun)
• The buildings in such a community. (noun)
• An association resembling a Fourierist phalanstery. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A phalanstery, which is in fact nothing but an immense hotel, can please some, and even all at a certain period of their life, but the great mass prefers family life (family life of the future, be it understood)."
• "Sometimes a phalanstery is a necessity, but it would be hateful, were it the general rule."
• ""phalanstery" -- five hundred or a thousand people living in one great palace, built in the form of a hollow square."