Populace

//ˈpɑpjələs// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The common people of a nation. countable, uncountable

    "The populace despised their ignorant leader."

  2. 2
    people in general considered as a whole wordnet
  3. 3
    The inhabitants of a country or one of its administrative divisions (such as a state, province, or county). countable, uncountable

    "Thomas Brassey (1805-70) should be equally famous, yet he is unknown to swathes of the greater populace. His plaque is at Chester."

Synonyms

All synonyms
hoi polloibody politicbourgeoisiecanaillecitizenrycommon

Example

More examples

"The populace was in thrall to the dictator's whims."

Etymology

From Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio. Compare demotic.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.