Postmodernism is a way of building, painting, writing, and thinking that grew in the late twentieth century. It often mixes old styles with new ones, plays with copies and jokes, and does not believe there is only one ‘right’ modern way. The name says what it is answering: it comes after modernism, and in many ways it pushes back against it. Modernism liked clean lines, newness, and big serious ideas about progress; postmodernism is happier to borrow, mix, and doubt. People use the word in art class, architecture, and literary essays. In loose talk someone may call anything messy or ironic ‘postmodern,’ though actually the tidy classroom sense is this late-century mix-and-react style, not merely ‘very modern’ or ‘strange.’ The matching adjective is postmodern; a person who works in that style can be called a postmodernist.