Jeffersonian

American  

[jef-er-soh-nee-uhn] / ˌdʒɛf ərˈsoʊ ni ən /

adjective

1. pertaining to or advocating the political principles and doctrines of Thomas Thomas Jefferson, especially those stressing minimum control by the central government, the inalienable rights of the individual, and the superiority of an agrarian economy and rural society.

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noun

1. a supporter of Thomas Jefferson or Jeffersonianism.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Jeffersonianism
  noun
• anti-Jeffersonian
  adjective
• pro-Jeffersonian
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Jeffersonian

An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800; Jefferson + -ian

Compare meaning

How does jeffersonian compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Hamiltonian vs. Jeffersonian

Example Sentences

Industrialization posed the question, the author writes, of whether, as the historian James Truslow Adams put it, “a Jeffersonian democracy could survive in a Hamiltonian economy.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

Instead, I would frame the Black liberal tradition in opposition to a pro-slavery or even a Jeffersonian liberal tradition that patently made no space for Black people and women.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2024

Federalists, typified by Manhattanite Alexander Hamilton, desired a restless, churning urban nation and opposed the Jeffersonian vision of a republic of rural yeomen.

From Washington Post • Apr. 14, 2023

“You can actually be Jeffersonian and have a career: Go serve your city, go serve your state, go serve your country and then go back to private life,” Caruso said.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2022

It brought together the old revolutionary rhetoric, even deploying some familiar Jeffersonian language, with all the oppositional energy of the Whig tradition, then hurled it at assumption as the new incarnation of foreign domination.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis