Malthus
Americannoun
noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Thomas Malthus promulgated the theory that population would grow at a faster rate than the means to support that population could, and so there would have to be ways to reduce population in unpleasant ways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Malthus published several revisions of his original essay, responding to new observations as well as criticism from contemporary economic giants like David Ricardo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
In 1798, British economist Thomas Malthus forecast that an increasing population would soon outstrip, disastrously, nature’s capacity to feed so many people; in 1968, the title of an influential tract spoke of a “population bomb.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 19, 2022
In plain English, Malthus believed exponential population growth would inevitably outpace food production, increasing poverty and famine, what's known as a "Malthusian catastrophe."
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2022
Thomas Malthus had been a curate at the Okewood Chapel in Surrey by daytime, but he was a closet economist by night.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
