Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

lumpen

American  
[luhm-puhn] / ˈlʌm pən /

adjective

  1. of or relating to disfranchised and uprooted individuals or groups, especially those who have lost status.

    the lumpen bourgeoisie.


noun

  1. a lumpen individual or group.

lumpen British  
/ ˈlʌmpən /

adjective

  1. informal stupid or unthinking

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of lumpen

First recorded in 1945–50; extracted from lumpenproletariat


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:

To get there, we had to follow the Ukrainian soldiers on foot - within a few paces my boots become lumpen and heavy with thick dirt.

From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2023

In its tender, lovingly rendered affect, it’s like an anti-KAWS: unpolished, lumpen, inescapably human.

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2021

Seeking to impose on others the conformity it enforces in its ranks, articulate only in a boilerplate of ritualized cant, today’s lumpen intelligentsia consists of persons for whom a little learning is delightful.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 25, 2020

The film also introduces the Charlie Kaufman type: pasty and disheveled, with bad hair and lumpen bodies and a thin film of flopsweat on the face.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 29, 2019

Among German Socialists it is called the "lumpen proletariat," and both for the present and future is looked at with the greatest anxiety.

From Socialism As It Is A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement by William English Walling

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training