Malthus

American  

[mal-thuhs] / ˈmæl θəs /

noun

1. Thomas Robert, 1766–1834, English economist and clergyman.

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Malthus British  

/ ˈmælθəs /

noun

1. Thomas Robert. 1766–1834, English economist. He propounded his population theory in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

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Example Sentences

Ehrlich was often labeled a neo-Malthusian, a reference to the 18th-century British political economist Thomas Malthus, best known for “An Essay on the Principle of Population.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

Malthus argued that “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce sustenance for man.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

Neo-Malthusian refers to the concepts of economist Thomas Malthus, who argued against human overpopulation in the 18th century; social Darwinism is a misapplication of biologist Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory to validate conservative social hierarchies.

From Salon • Dec. 2, 2024

It was named for Thomas Malthus, who had advocated limiting births in the late eighteenth century in order to prevent the human population from growing beyond the capacity of the land to support it.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Thomas Malthus had been a curate at the Okewood Chapel in Surrey by daytime, but he was a closet economist by night.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee