the peasantry

noun

: all the peasants living in an area or country
He tried to organize the peasantry for a revolt.
the Russian peasantry

Examples of the peasantry in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The demonstrations were not confined to Beijing and had the support of elements of the working class and the peasantry. Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023 By the autumn of 1848, the old regimes were on the march—with the peasantry firmly behind them and bolstered by a vast Russian army. James Robins, The New Republic, 8 Aug. 2023 The philosophical difference between Maoism and Marxism–Leninism is that the peasantry are the revolutionary vanguard in pre-industrial societies rather than the proletariat. Matt B. Weir, Harper's Magazine, 11 Jan. 2022 Under the Russian empire, Jews living in what is now Ukraine in the 19th century tended to adopt Russian rather than Ukrainian, usually in addition to Yiddish, because Ukrainian was perceived as the language of the peasantry and conferred few benefits. David I. Klein, Sun Sentinel, 29 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the peasantry.' 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

“The peasantry.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20peasantry. Accessed 1 May. 2024.

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