populace

noun

pop·​u·​lace ˈpä-pyə-ləs 

1

: the common people : masses

2

: population

Did you know?

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

• commoners
• commons
• crowd
• herd
• hoi polloi
• mass
• millions
• mob
• multitude
• people
• plebeians
• plebs
• public
• rank and file

Examples of populace in a Sentence

The populace has suffered greatly.

high officials awkwardly mingling with the general populace

Recent Examples on the Web

This offers the populace some measure of accountability and contributes to the expectation that officers will perform their legal duties in keeping with their own departmental policies and within the boundaries of the law. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 8 June 2025

Imagine arriving in Florence ready to guide and instruct the populace and instead being tussled over like a toy between two toddlers! —The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 29 May 2025

But the deeper concern goes beyond ice crystals, to the notion that government agencies are trying to poison the populace or affect weather patterns through geoengineering. —Martin E. Comas, The Orlando Sentinel, 25 May 2025

The sudden heat spike, which was made more likely by the decades-long failure to stop burning fossil fuels, creates an acute danger for a populace not yet acclimatized to summer heat. —Saul Elbein, The Hill, 14 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French, "mob, rabble," borrowed from Italian popolazzo, popolaccio "the common people, the masses, rabble, mob," from popolo people entry 1 + -azzo, -accio, augmentative and pejorative suffix, going back to Latin -āceus -aceous

Note: The extension of -āceus to nouns, through deletion of the modified head noun, takes place already in Latin (see note at -aceous), and continued into Italian—compare focaccia "flatbread," already attested in Late Latin, from Latin focus "hearth." At some point the notion of appurtenance or similarity appears to have led to that of devaluation, whence the application of the Italian suffix to things of inappropriately large size or inferior quality. The derivatives popolazzo and popolaccio show both the Tuscan outcome -accio and a variant -azzo that represents the outcome of -āceus in Upper Italian or southern Italian dialects.

First Known Use

1572, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for populace

• populous
• populus

Kids Definition

populace

noun

pop·​u·​lace ˈpäp-yə-ləs 

1

: the common people : masses

2

: population sense 1