political hack
noun · n
Simple meaning
A politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhlituhkuhlhakSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pəˈlɪtəkəlˈhæk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
n
"Political hack" is a pejorative term describing a person who is more loyal to a particular political party than to their own sense of ethics.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
Used this way, political hack is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.