of or relating to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language; vernacular.
a poet with a keen ear for demotic rhythms.
of or relating to the common people; popular.
of, relating to, or noting the simplified form of hieratic writing used in ancient Egypt between 700 b.c. and a.d. 500.
demotic script.
Also called Romaic. (initial capital letter) the Modern Greek vernacular (distinguished from Katharevusa).
of or relating to the common people; popular
of or relating to a simplified form of hieroglyphics used in ancient Egypt by the ordinary literate class outside the priesthood Compare hieratic
1815–25; < Greek dēmotikós popular, plebeian, equivalent to dēmót ( ēs ) a plebeian (derivative of dêmos; see demo-) + -ikos -ic
A demotic saying or expression is casual, colloquial, and used by the masses. Some forms of the Greek and Egyptian languages are also called demotic, which will be relevant to you when you get your PhD in Classics. Demotic comes from the Greek word demotikos, meaning "of or for the common people" or "in common use." Members of the aristocracy don’t typically use demotic idioms, but it is often the elite who will point out that something is demotic. Of course, in a classless society, everything ought to be demotic, therefore making it obsolete to designate sayings as demotic. So far, however, demotic is still a relevant term.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With a voice that is relatively light and raspy and a delivery both nimble and demotic, Mr. Dale matches his energy to the text in a way that makes for effortless listening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
Beside the "beautifully and accurately carved" sphinx, archaeologists also found a Roman-era stone slab with demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2023
Today’s readers, used to the twittering demotic of our age, may need to adjust to this titanic prose-poem’s leisurely, mandarin style.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2022
Her prose could be lush, or raw and demotic, or carefree and eccentric, often on a single page.
From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2019
In old Egyptian tales the narrative portions are frequently in prose; New Egyptian and demotic contain as a rule little else.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various
Another inscription on the vessel is written in Demotic script, a simplified form of ancient Egyptian writing.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 18, 2025
The use of Egyptian hieroglyphs, for example, continued for centuries until it was ultimately replaced by Meroitic, an alpha-syllabic script derived from the Egyptian Demotic script.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Bearing inscriptions of the same text in Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Ancient Greek, it was used by Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher Hieroglyphs from 1822, opening up understanding of ancient Egyptian language and culture.
From Reuters ● Oct. 5, 2022
And the three bands of text — classical Greek, hieroglyphs and an Egyptian shorthand called Demotic — were intended to proclaim the monarch’s achievements in multiple tongues to the peoples of the empire.
From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2021
Ferlini, a student of the Demotic writings which had superseded hieroglyphics, doubted not that he had translated the revelation aright, though he admitted supplying many missing words in accordance with his own deductions.
From It Happened in Egypt by Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
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.
