What does "populism" mean?

A political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this.

What is a synonym for "populism"?

Common synonyms include: folkism, ouvrierism.

Populism

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this. countable, uncountable
2
the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite wordnet
3
The practice of appealing to the interests of the common people. countable, derogatory, uncountable
"It is not crass populism or majoritanianism that ratifies the legitimacy of the polity or the administration."

Synonyms

All synonyms

folkism ouvrierism

Example

More examples

"Beyond the Right's populism and the dispersion of the Left which have made this situation possible, I take full responsibility for this defeat and draw the necessary conclusions by retiring from political life after the end of the presidential election."

Etymology

From Latin populus + -ism.

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