leftist
Americannoun
adjective
adjective
noun
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Etymology
Origin of leftist
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Explanation
In politics, a leftist is someone who tends to support progressive or socialist ideas. Leftists generally favor bigger government and policies that result in economic and social equality. This political term, in use since the late 19th century, is from left, a word that came to mean "the democratic or liberal party." This meaning goes back to the seating arrangement of legislators in the Estates General during the French Revolution: those seated on the left supported the revolution, and came to be called la gauche, or "the left." Leftists is just another way to describe anyone with progressive or liberal political beliefs.
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.
Having unsuccessfully run for president three times, she won with 50.135 percent of the vote over leftist rival Roberto Sanchez's 49.865 percent on her fourth try.
From Barron's • Jul. 3, 2026
Keiko Fujimori won the June 7 presidential runoff by the slimmest of margins, outpolling leftist Roberto Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes out of the more than 18 million ballots cast, the final results showed.
From Barron's • Jun. 29, 2026
In the first round, De la Espriella won 44 percent of the vote against his nearest rival, leftist Ivan Cepeda, who tallied 41 percent.
From Barron's • Jun. 20, 2026
With more than 98% of the votes counted in Sunday’s runoff election, she overtook her leftist opponent, Roberto Sánchez, with 50.002% support—a difference of just a few hundred votes out of nearly 20 million cast.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
The Neylan board’s first case involved a former Los Alamos chemist named Robert Hurley, who had fallen under suspicion because his Latvian-born wife purportedly had leftist sympathies.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
