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• populist
  populist

  noun

  a supporter or adherent of populism.
• Populist
  Populist

  noun

  history a member of the People's Party, formed largely by agrarian interests to contest the 1892 presidential election. The movement gradually dissolved after the 1904 election

populist

American  

[pop-yuh-list] / ˈpɒp jə lɪst /

noun

• populists
  plural

1. a supporter or adherent of populism.

2. (initial capital letter) a member of the People's party.

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adjective

1. Also populistic. of, relating to, or characteristic of populism or its adherents.

2. (initial capital letter) Also Populistic. of or relating to the People's party.

Populist ¹ British  

/ ˈpɒpjʊlɪst /

noun

1. history a member of the People's Party, formed largely by agrarian interests to contest the 1892 presidential election. The movement gradually dissolved after the 1904 election

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adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to the People's Party, the Populists, or any individual or movement with similar aims

populist ² British  

/ ˈpɒpjʊlɪst /

adjective

1. appealing to the interests or prejudices of ordinary people

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noun

1. a person, esp a politician, who appeals to the interests or prejudices of ordinary people

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Populism
  noun
• anti-populist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• populists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of populist

An Americanism first recorded in 1890–95; from Latin popul(us) “people” ( cf. people, popular) + -ist

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Explanation

Use the noun populist to describe a person — especially a politician or activist — who works to give regular working people a voice in their government. In politics, the word populist refers to someone who puts ordinary people's rights above those of the wealthy and powerful. It is basically a synonym of democrat, which when spelled with a lower-case d is simply a person who believes in democratic principles of rule by the people, freedom, and equality. The root of populist is the Latin word for "people," populus.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

populist Populist populists

Riding a populist wave to redistribute wealth, Tiberius Gracchus appealed to the democratic concilium plebis, cutting out the deliberative Senate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Synthetic yet organic, populist yet elitist, the $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is full of contradictions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

"Shortsighted or populist reactions to underlying business challenges are not the answer," Ashley said in the letter.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Tucker, the Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner, is a fifth-generation Texan who ties his campaign to Texas’ populist movement and focuses on issues that receive the most petition signatures on his website.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

For a good part of the eighteenth and all of the nineteenth century, the populist, light, tuneful Italian style of opera was what most people went to an opera house for.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Evangelical leaders “helped to organize the Populist revolt of the 1880s and 1890s” and others “urged Texans to see the sins of our economic system,” he said.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

Populist Peter Pellegrini has been elected president of Slovakia, succeeding the liberal Zuzana Caputova.

From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2024

The incident was covered at the time by a local media outlet, The Lost Coast Populist, but wasn’t picked up by national outlets until Wednesday.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 14, 2023

The natural leader of the Populist Party was the Farmers’ Alliance leader, Leonidas L. Polk, who presided over the meeting that created the party.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2023

Populist candidates, black and white, campaigned together throughout the South, speaking from the same podium.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Macron, who attended the country’s top schools, “has become the embodiment of everything populists hate,” said Olivier Costa, a research professor at the Paris-based Sciences Po university and France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

If the cinema had a dozen more ambitious populists like Coogler, it would be in tip-top health.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025

These shamanistic masks have long been a mainstay of populists.

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2025

In the first round, Torres’ competition came mostly from other conservative populists.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2023

It became evident to both Democrats and populists that the Negro vote had become the deciding vote in many states.

From The Black Experience in America by Norman Coombs

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