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populace

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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populace (countable and uncountable, plural populaces)

  1. The common people of a nation.
    The populace despised their ignorant leader.
    • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion[1]:
      Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.
  2. The inhabitants of a nation.
    • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57:
      Thomas Brassey (1805-70) should be equally famous, yet he is unknown to swathes of the greater populace. His plaque is at Chester.

Usage notes

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  • Do not confuse populace (a noun) with populous (an adjective).
  • The Latin word populus, which means nearly the same thing, is sometimes erroneously used for populace in English writing.

Synonyms

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Translations

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References

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Czech

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [ˈpopulat͡sɛ]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: po‧pu‧la‧ce

Noun

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populace f (related adjective populační)

  1. population

Declension

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • populace”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
  • populace”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
  • populace”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Italian popolazzo.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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populace f (plural populaces)

  1. (derogatory) populace, common people
    Synonym: plèbe
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Further reading

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