Word.ws English Dictionary

Matthew effect

Matthew effect proper noun: the phenomenon by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, either in terms of literal wealth or in terms of fame, status, etc.

Proper noun

the Matthew effect

  1. The phenomenon by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, either in terms of literal wealth or in terms of fame, status, etc.
    • When we click on the top search results or watch the FrontPage videos on YouTube or read established blogs, we are jumping on invisible bandwagons, causing the Matthew effect to kick in.2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN

Synonyms of Matthew effect

Origin of Matthew effect

Coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968, in reference to Matthew 25:29.

Questions about Matthew effect

What does Matthew effect mean?
Matthew effect means the phenomenon by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, either in terms of literal wealth or in terms of fame, status, etc.
What part of speech is Matthew effect?
Matthew effect is a proper noun.

Words near Matthew effect in the dictionary

  1. Matthei
  2. Mattheis
  3. Matthesen
  4. Mattheson
  5. Matthew
  6. Matthew effect
  7. Matthew principle
  8. Matthew's pill
  9. Matthew's pills
  10. Matthewman
  11. Matthewmans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Matthew effect (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: “Matthew effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/matthew_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.