as in low
belonging to the class of people of low social or economic rank
a kind of music that has traditionally appealed to the lumpen segment of the musical audience
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Recent Examples of lumpen
Yet Empire Falls translates into a lumpen, stodgy miniseries, despite a fine central performance from Harris as a divorced diner owner with deep roots in the town and a structure that allows the past to keep informing and enriching the present.
—
Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2024
Rhys spent decades, often isolated and paranoid, in lumpen houses and apartments in and out of London, before success arrived late.
—New York Times, 20 June 2022
Then the judges booted her for wearing a lumpen quilt skirt accessorized with a blow-up-doll boyfriend.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 20 Apr. 2022
Tye Sheridan gives a somewhat lumpen performance as the author’s stand-in, an aspiring writer whose family background is funky, to say the least.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Jan. 2022
The films of Sean Baker celebrate lumpen characters and communities that subsist within the cracks of America’s neoliberal landscape.
—Erik Morse, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2021
Some collectors are leaning further into technology by amassing digital artworks, while other sets of buyers are coping by prizing ceramics, with their fragile, lumpen tactility.
—Kelly Crow, WSJ, 6 July 2021
Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2024
Rhys spent decades, often isolated and paranoid, in lumpen houses and apartments in and out of London, before success arrived late.
—New York Times, 20 June 2022
Then the judges booted her for wearing a lumpen quilt skirt accessorized with a blow-up-doll boyfriend.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 20 Apr. 2022
Tye Sheridan gives a somewhat lumpen performance as the author’s stand-in, an aspiring writer whose family background is funky, to say the least.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Jan. 2022
The films of Sean Baker celebrate lumpen characters and communities that subsist within the cracks of America’s neoliberal landscape.
—Erik Morse, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2021
Some collectors are leaning further into technology by amassing digital artworks, while other sets of buyers are coping by prizing ceramics, with their fragile, lumpen tactility.
—Kelly Crow, WSJ, 6 July 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lumpen
Adjective
-
The organization’s Green Heart Project, which studies the impact of better air quality on heart disease through urban greening, has found that increasing the number of trees and shrubs in an area can create lower levels of a blood marker associated with inflammation.—
Maggie Menderski,
Louisville Courier Journal,
26 Oct. 2025
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Here is Carreras profiting from that exact ploy while playing for Benfica against Barcelona in the Champions League last season, sneaking forward on the far side before receiving the switch and hammering a low cross into striker Vangelis Pavlidis to score.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
These ranged from the aristocratic elite who dominated the military and bureaucracy and yearned for a return to monarchy, to communists who sought proletarian rule, to the National Socialists who wanted to establish a right-wing dictatorship.—
Time,
Time,
23 Oct. 2025
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This new proletarian culture was personified in the ideal of the New Soviet Man.—
Sonja Fritzsche,
The Conversation,
9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The Chinese mill’s Soft Raw collection enables customer to use unwashed denim directly off the roll with a soft comfortable hand and deep dark inky indigo shades.—
Angela Velasquez,
Sourcing Journal,
17 Oct. 2025
-
For such a popular restaurant, Matsuri tolerates a lot of flies, unwashed walls and substandard handwashing, as detailed in a Miami Herald story this week on last week’s inspection.—
David J. Neal,
Miami Herald,
26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Below that sits the pedestrian CLK 500 and plebeian CLK 350.—
Jeremy Korzeniewski,
Robb Report,
26 Feb. 2025
-
Across the lake, on the plebeian side, up the shoreline a mile or so, in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, stand twin 32-story towers dubbed Trump Plaza of the Palm Beaches.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
8 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Their father, my grandfather, was a career low-life criminal and was in jail all the time for forgery and conning people.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
From bright, bold hard-shell spinners to the humble duffel bag, carry-on luggage comes in seemingly endless varieties.—
Sal Vaglica,
USA Today,
4 Nov. 2025
-
Well, maybe not cheering, exactly, but at least nodding in mild appreciation at a movie that realizes its humble and happy purpose.—
Richard Lawson,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Who decides what’s decorous and what’s vulgar?—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
25 Oct. 2025
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The president has been targeting Jeffries online with offensive and vulgar memes since the pair first had an unsuccessful sit-down meeting in the Oval Office just before the shutdown.—
Zachary Schermele,
USA Today,
9 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The Jets recently saw their local deliveries plummet to an ignoble 4.5 rating, which translates to a meager 350,530 Gang Green households tuning in to WBCS-2.—
Anthony Crupi,
Sportico.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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Its central character, Chevy Chase's Clark W. Griswold, is a dopey dad trying to keep it together amid an escalating series of exasperating frustrations and ignoble temptations.—
Jordan Hoffman,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Lumpen.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lumpen. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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