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Populace is usually used to refer to all the people of a country. Thus, we're often told that an educated and informed populace is essential for a healthy American democracy. Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous radio "Fireside Chats" informed and reassured the American populace in the 1930s as we struggled through the Great Depression. We often hear about what "the general populace" is thinking or doing, but generalizing about something so huge can be tricky.
Synonyms
Examples of populace in a Sentence
Kate McMahon, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024
The court consumed the wealth of France, starving its populace (who, of course, eventually rebelled) and, along the way, smothering its queen, who, in her way, also rebelled, albeit behind the walls of power.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2024
Frequent civilian protests reveal a populace deeply unhappy with the country’s leadership.
—Aj Willingham, CNN, 5 Mar. 2024
The new effort to toughen up the law — even if that increases the state’s prison populace a bit — now includes San Francisco and San Jose Mayors London Breed and Matt Mahan.
—Thomas Elias, The Mercury News, 5 Mar. 2024
With nearly 11 million people already displaced—three million of them children—the country is now home to the most people rendered homeless by conflict worldwide, and its populace sits poised on the brink of a major famine.
—John Prendergast, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2024
But time has been good to the action-comedy, perhaps because its gleefully cynical portrait of nationalism and a war-hungry populace would resonate that much more in the years following 9/11 and the Iraq War.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 9 Nov. 2023
Asian Americans make up 3% of people in Wisconsin, but the populace has grown by 82% since 2000.
—Sakshi Venkatraman, NBC News, 4 Apr. 2024
Instead of dividing the people against the resistance, the junta’s extreme violence has only made much of Myanmar’s populace more determined to oust the military from power, according to analysts and people who spoke to CNN in the country.
—Helen Regan, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'populace.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Populace.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/populace. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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populace
noun
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