leftist
Americannoun
-
leftists
plural
adjective
adjective
noun
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Derived Forms
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Nouns
Etymology
Origin of leftist
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How does leftist compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
See Examples For:
The gloomy climate at City Hall drew in mayoral challengers, including Austin Beutner, a former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent and Los Angeles Times publisher, and leftist organizer Rae Huang.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026
Cárdenas was a bad debater and a dull speaker who read his speeches and rarely flashed a smile, said Manuel Camacho, a top leftist politician, in a 2014 interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Trump, however, was not entirely sour on Brazil's leftist president, declaring, "I like Lula, I get along with him very well."
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
When he became president in 2003, he came to office as the first leftist leader of Brazil in nearly half a century.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 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
But his tone has changed slightly following input from younger leftists, and the incumbent now calls himself the "king of the selfie."
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
In that very funny tract, Rosten addressed young baby boom radicals: leftists who had lost faith in America because of the war in Vietnam and reactionaries who wanted to ban hippies from college campuses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Parton was a virtuoso at staying, if not apolitical, at least a neutral zone of relatability for conservatives and leftists alike, each of whom had ways to read their lives into her storytelling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
He assigned his student a scholarly monograph, “Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in a Capitalist Society,” to begin his long education in how leftists think.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
Driving out the Turks to gain national independence in 1878 is remembered, as is the abortive uprising of the leftists against the government in September 1923.
From Area Handbook for Bulgaria by Violeta D. Baluyut
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
