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Long before your Luddite friend was waxing poetic about how blissful it is to not have a smartphone, Luddites were protesting the textile machinery that was slowly replacing them. It was toward the end of 1811, in the vicinity of Nottingham, England, when handicraftsmen formed organized bands and began to riot for the destruction of the new machinery. Their name is of uncertain origin, but it may be connected to a (probably mythical) person named Ned Ludd. According to an unsubstantiated account in George Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847), Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of rage, rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment; subsequently, his name was proverbially connected with machinery destruction. With the onset of the information age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.
Examples of Luddite in a Sentence
John Koetsier, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025
His icky organic take on the digital future, a Luddite open world of bone pistols and nippled controllers, vacuum-seals eXistenZ in a way some semblance of real technology never could.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025
Meanwhile, a team of techie whiz kids again work their special computer magic (another highlight) at a hidden institution and show up the Luddite adults.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2025
Then tell us: What is your reaction to the Luddite Club?
—Shannon Doyne, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2025
There’s a growing Luddite movement among some teenagers, choosing — out of frustration with the grip social media has on society — to go without those sites and other modern technology.
—Leah Asmelash, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025
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Still, Hayes, who writes honestly about his experience trying to grab and keep your attention from his job as an MSNBC host, makes a point of saying that this is not a Luddite’s polemic.
—Stuart Miller, Orange County Register, 3 Feb. 2025
Equally foolish would be a Luddite reaction to new technologies or attempts to censor what people can write about themselves or read about the outside world.
—Branko Milanovic, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2011
Or is the therapist’s smug Luddite attitude somehow a threat?
—The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Luddite.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Luddite. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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