demagogue
/ˈdɛməɡɒɡ/US/ˈdɛməɡɑɡ/
demagogue noun: a political orator or leader, especially in a democratic system, who gains favor by pandering to or exciting the passions and prejudices of the audience rather than by using rational argument.
Noun
demagogue (plural demagogues)
- A political orator or leader, especially in a democratic system, who gains favor by pandering to or exciting the passions and prejudices of the audience rather than by using rational argument.
- A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.1938, O'Neill, translating The Knights by Aristophanes, 424 BC, lines 191-193
- If the majority of our fellow-citizens are more susceptible to the slogans of fear and race hatred than to those of peaceful accommodation and mutual respect among human beings, our political liberties remain at the mercy of any eloquent and unscrupulous demagogue.1949, S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action, page ix
- A leader of the people.
Verb
demagogue (third-person singular simple present demagogues, present participle demagoguing, simple past and past participle demagogued)
- To speak or act in the manner of a demagogue; to speak about (an issue) in the manner of a demagogue.
- I never demagogued on our serious questions and stood for civil liberties.c. 1938, Maury Maverick, The New York Times, quoted in 1970, Richard B. Henderson, Maury Maverick: A Political Biography, page 183
- On the subject of foreign aid, although it is a relatively unimportant economic category, it is an area of expenditure that has frequently been demagogued and has been a favorite target of politicians during tough times in the domestic economy.1995, Richard J. Carroll, An Economic Record of Presidential Performance: From Truman to Bush, page 171
demagogue meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic
demagogue in Tamil
- மக்கள் தலைவர், மிகச்சிறந்த பேச்சாளர்
demagogue in Malayalam
- rabble-rouser, political agitator, soapbox orator
- ജനനേതാവ്, ജനങ്ങളെ മുതലെടുക്കുന്ന ജനനേതാവ്, മെെതാനപ്രസംഗകൻ, ജനങ്ങളെ ഇളക്കിവിടുന്ന രാഷ്ട്രീയ നേതാവ്, രാഷ്ട്രീയപ്രാസംഗികൻ, വാഗ്മി
demagogue in Kannada
- ಜನನಾಯಕ, ಮುಂದಾಳು, ಪುಢಾರಿ, ಸಣ್ಣಮಟ್ಟದ ರಾಜಕಾರಣಿ
demagogue in Arabic
- (pejorative) a political orator or leader who gains favor by pandering to or exciting the passions and prejudices of the audience rather than by using rational argument
- زَعِيم الدهماء, دَهْمَاوِيّ dahmāwiyy
More languagesFewer languages
- demagogue in Indonesian
- demagog
- demagogue in Thai
- ผู้นำฝูงชน p̄hū̂nả f̄ūng chn
- demagogue in Vietnamese
- nịnh dân, người mị dân
Examples of demagogue in a sentence
- It is true that America has a paranoid streak in its politics, and demagogues come along from time to time to feed on anger and resentment.2010, Evan Thomas, Why It’s Time to Worry Newsweek:
- Talk to anyone with half a brain (and at least half a heart) and they will tell you, regardless of their position, that this is an issue to be weighed, not demagogued.2006, Patrick Hynes, In Defense of the Religious Right, page 194:
Forms of demagogue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | demagogues |
| alternative US | demagog |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | demagogues |
| present participle | demagoguing |
| past participle | demagogued |
| past | demagogued |
Origin of demagogue
From Middle French démagogue, from Ancient Greek δημαγωγός (dēmagōgós, “popular leader, mob leader”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + ἀγωγός (agōgós, “guide”). By surface analysis, dem- + -agogue.
Words formed from demagogue
Questions about demagogue
- What does demagogue mean?
- Demagogue means a political orator or leader, especially in a democratic system, who gains favor by pandering to or exciting the passions and prejudices of the audience rather than by using rational argument.
- What is demagogue in Tamil?
- Demagogue in Tamil is மக்கள் தலைவர், மிகச்சிறந்த பேச்சாளர். See Demagogue meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use demagogue in a sentence?
- It is true that America has a paranoid streak in its politics, and demagogues come along from time to time to feed on anger and resentment.
- What part of speech is demagogue?
- Demagogue can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce demagogue?
- Demagogue is pronounced /ˈdɛməɡɑɡ/ (US).
- What is the plural of demagogue?
- The plural of demagogue is demagogues.
Words near demagogue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: demagogue (page history and authors); demagogue (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demagogue (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); demagogue (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-demagogue.wav.
Cite this entry: “demagogue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/demagogue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.