proletariat
noun
, -ē-ˌat\
Definition of proletariat
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Synonyms & Antonyms for proletariat
Synonyms
rabble, rabblement, ragtag and bobtail, riffraff, rout, scum, tag, rag, and bobtail (or tagrag and bobtail), trash, unwashed
Antonyms
A-list, aristocracy, elite, gentry, quality, society, upper class, upper crust
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Examples of proletariat in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Since 2002, the Red Door is where Salt Lake City’s savvy proletariats and up-and-coming revolutionaries gather to chat about economics and world affairs over sophisticated cocktails. — James Charisma, Los Angeles Times, "A guide to Salt Lake City’s burgeoning bar scene," 3 Aug. 2019 In Chinese, da means big, and long means dragon, a sacred symbol of the emperor, alluding to Chengdu’s imperious sense of itself as a place of cultural refinement, and to its scorn for Chongqing’s salt-of-the-earth proletariat. — Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, "Go Bold at Da Long Yi Hot Pot," 25 May 2018 Marx’s proletariat is being reborn as the precariat. — The Economist, "Rulers of the world: read Karl Marx!," 3 May 2018 Its modernization had involved uprooting the peasants, the vast majority of the population, from the countryside and turning them into an urban proletariat. — Azar Gat, WSJ, "The ‘Modernizing Dictator’ Is No Myth," 13 Nov. 2018 More critically, the claim that our current crisis has economic roots does not rest on psychoanalyzing the Trumpen proletariat. — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "America’s Version of Capitalism Is Incompatible With Democracy," 23 May 2018 Hernandez also wants to stir the proletariat to like him — finally — and not be angry with the Giants for keeping him around at the expense of prospect Steven Duggar, who might spend the entire summer in Sacramento honing his bat. — Henry Schulman, San Francisco Chronicle, "Giants’ Hernandez turning AT&T into Gorkys’ park," 7 June 2018 Unlike the universalist utopian visions of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the self-regulating market, the mixed economy requires endless tinkering and compromise. — Justin Fox, New York Times, "How Rampant Globalization Brought Us Trump," 18 May 2018 However, in a Marxist revolution, the proletariat will come together to overthrow the bourgeoisie and ultimately, win the class conflict by taking control over their work, or striking. — Danielle Corcione, Teen Vogue, "Who Is Karl Marx: Meet the Anti-Capitalist Scholar," 10 May 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'proletariat.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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