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

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Etymology

Origin of prole

First recorded in 1885–90; shortened form of proletariat

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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

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

From Economist ● Jun. 26, 2014

The advice Seymour gave to the lesser Glasses: to always think of “the Fat Lady”—the anonymous prole listener to the Glass family radio quiz show out in the sticks—as Jesus Himself.

From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2013

Still, here they come, straight outta Leamington Spa, that hotbed of radical prole action, with their punk-inspired rock'n'roll, singing their anthems of rebellion and resistance – although against and to what remains unclear.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 21, 2010

The hunting-down and destruction of books had been done with the same thoroughness in the prole quarters as everywhere else.

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

They were cast as stock soap characters, comedy proles, about whom the likes of Annie Walker, Elsie Tanner and Rita Fairclough would be insufferably snooty.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 14, 2016

The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention.

From "1984" by George Orwell

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