Word.ws English Dictionary

50 cent army

50 cent army noun: alleged Internet users who are paid by the authorities of the People's Republic of China to spread propaganda and disinformation on their behalf.

Noun

50 cent army

  1. Alleged Internet users who are paid by the authorities of the People's Republic of China to spread propaganda and disinformation on their behalf.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:50 cent army.
  2. (derogatory) Anyone seen as supportive of China or the Communist Party of China, regardless of payment or compensation.

Synonyms of 50 cent army

Forms of 50 cent army

alternative formfifty cent army
alternative formfifty-cent army
alternative form50-cent army

Origin of 50 cent army

Calque of Chinese 五毛黨 /五毛党 (wǔmáodǎng, literally “the 5 dime party”), in reference to allegations that the Chinese government employs online shills paid 1/2 yuan RMB per online post at the time they first came to public attention.

Questions about 50 cent army

What does 50 cent army mean?
50 cent army means alleged Internet users who are paid by the authorities of the People's Republic of China to spread propaganda and disinformation on their behalf.
What part of speech is 50 cent army?
50 cent army is a noun.

Words near 50 cent army in the dictionary

  1. 5.1
  2. 5/4
  3. 5/8
  4. 50 burger
  5. 50 burgers
  6. 50 cent army
  7. 50's
  8. 50's progression
  9. 50's progressions
  10. 50-30-20 rule
  11. 50-50

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 50 cent army (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “50 cent army.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/50_cent_army. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.