populist
/ˈpɒp.jʊ.lɪst/US/ˈpɑ.pjə.lɪst/
populist noun: a person who advocates populism (a movement against ruling elites who are presumed not to act in the interests of the ordinary citizen).
Noun
populist (plural populists)
- A person who advocates populism (a movement against ruling elites who are presumed not to act in the interests of the ordinary citizen).
- Critics suggest that Fernández, an unashamed populist and nationalist, is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home.2013 January 3, Luke Harding, Uki Goni, The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2023
- On top of all that, rightwing populists and leftwing progressives have made significant inroads into western politics.2022 March 8, Andrew Anthony, “Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 13 Jul...
- A politician who advocates specific policies just because they are popular.
- A person who advocates democratic principles.
Adjective
populist (comparative more populist, superlative most populist)
- Democratic.
- Put forward just because it would be popular.
- Of or pertaining to populism.
- On the right, this can look like gleeful cruelty, sadistic memes, posts that “own the libs” or sensationalized claims about fraud and conspiracy. On the left, it could be social justice messaging, online identity politics or populist economic proposals to, say, tax the rich.2026 February 13, Nathan Taylor Pemberton, “When Posting Becomes Its Own Style of Politics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
populist meaning in Hindi, Kannada, Arabic and Thai
populist in Hindi
- democratic
- जनवादी janvādī
populist in Kannada
- ಶ್ರೀಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಪಕ್ಷದವನು
populist in Arabic
- politician who advocates policies just because they are popular
- شَعْبَوِيّ šaʕbawiyy, شَعْبَوِيَّة šaʕbawiyya
- put forward just because it would be popular
- شَعْبَوِيّ šaʕbawiyy
populist in Thai
- of or pertaining to populism
- ประชานิยม bprà-chaa-ní-yom
Examples of populist in a sentence
- On top of all that, rightwing populists and leftwing progressives have made significant inroads into western politics.
- The Diba Expedition gave birth to a new breed of cybernationalists and populists—the Little Pinks.
- Many of the founders and leaders of today’s populist parties now just aren’t like their followers.
Synonyms of populist
Forms of populist
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | populists |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more populist |
| superlative | most populist |
Origin of populist
From Latin populus + English -ist.
Words formed from populist
Questions about populist
- What does populist mean?
- Populist means a person who advocates populism (a movement against ruling elites who are presumed not to act in the interests of the ordinary citizen).
- What is populist in Hindi?
- Populist in Hindi is जनवादी (janvādī). See Populist meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is populist?
- Populist can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce populist?
- Populist is pronounced /ˈpɒp.jʊ.lɪst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of populist?
- The plural of populist is populists.
Words near populist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: populist (page history and authors); populist (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-populist.wav.
Cite this entry: “populist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/populist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.