prole

American  

[prohl, proh-lee] / proʊl, ˈproʊ li /

noun

Informal.

• proles
  plural

1. a member of the proletariat.

2. a person who performs routine tasks in a society.

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adjective

1. proletarian.

prole British  

/ prəʊl /

noun

1. derogatory short for proletarian

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• proles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of prole

First recorded in 1885–90; shortened form of proletariat

Explanation

A prole is a worker, or a member of the blue-collar working class. Someone who's employed at a mill or a factory is considered a prole. Prole is short for proletariat, the collective name for workers that's especially common in (and was popularized by) Marxist economics. The word comes from the Latin proletarius, "citizen of the lowest class," used in ancient Rome to describe the group of people who didn't own property and whose only contribution to society was having children. It comes from proles, or "offspring."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

prole proles

In language as crass and cadenced as gunfire, Mamet turned their man-eat-man philosophy, which some call capitalism, into brutal prole poetry: a poetry of predation, you might even say.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022

The rebel manufacturers of Hoffman lenses inside the church will never for an instant consider distributing those potential instruments of prole revolution among their immediate neighbors in Justiceville.

From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2017

So the cheeky medieval prole schtick fell flat.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2017

He was not just Mr Cameron’s top prole; security types were impressed by his grasp of strategy.

From Economist ● Jun. 26, 2014

If there was anyone alive who could give you a truthful account of conditions in the early part of the century, it could only be a prole.

From "1984" by George Orwell

This level of self-regard in a writer and thinker as justifiably exalted as Smith may explain why our nation is turning on reading: aristocracies breed resentment among the proles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025

But if hope lies with the proles, and that extraordinary example of the proles, is this woman singing a song about lost love and memory and yearning while hanging out diapers.

From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2021

In George Orwell’s “1984,” the proles are spared a life of constant surveillance, while higher-ranking members of society are exposed to Big Brother’s watchful eye.

From New York Times ● May 9, 2017

"Your father can't help being the emotionally repressed deputy head teacher who is a bit liberal and wants to get on the parish council so that the proles can keep their addiction centre."

From The Guardian ● Sep. 30, 2012

For the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or think of them merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world.

From "1984" by George Orwell