Luddite
Americannoun
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a member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–16) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment.
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someone who is opposed or resistant to new technologies or technological change.
noun
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any of the textile workers opposed to mechanization who rioted and organized machine-breaking between 1811 and 1816
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any opponent of industrial change or innovation
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Luddite
First recorded in 1805–15; supposedly after Ned Ludd, 18th-century Leicestershire worker who in a fit of rage destroyed mechanical knitting machines; see -ite 1
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.
“I’ve lived most of my life as a futurist, and I don’t hate technology. I’m certainly no Luddite — but I’ve had a lot of the hope sucked out of me in the post-COVID years.”
From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026
The Luddite movement, which predated the Swing Riots, was led by textile workers convinced that power-operated looms would permanently impoverish the middle class.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
I’m no Luddite, though I did cling to my BlackBerry, with its winning Lilliputian keyboard, surrendering reluctantly to an iPhone only when the BlackBerry became extinct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
“I’m not trying to be a Luddite and realize AI is coming whether the industry as a whole wants it or not, but poor taste and poor timing,” reads the top comment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
Here and there a Luddite holdout refuses to open an email account, just as thousands of years ago some human bands refused to take up farming and so escaped the luxury trap.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
