populist
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Someone who advocates the rights of the common people over those of the elite.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahpyuhluhstSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɑpjələst
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 person who advocates populism (a movement against ruling elites who are presumed not to act in the interests of the ordinary citizen).
Someone who advocates the rights of the common people over those of the elite
A politician who advocates specific policies just because they are popular.
A person who advocates democratic principles.
adjective
Of or pertaining to populism.
of a political policy
Put forward just because it would be popular.
Democratic.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person who advocates populism (a movement against ruling elites who are presumed not to act in the interests of the ordinary citizen).
Used this way, populist is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
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.