pollster
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pollster
Explanation
A pollster is a person who surveys voters to find out who they're voting for or to gather other information about their opinions. Often, pollsters attempt to predict the outcome of an election by polling people either before they vote or just afterwards. Pollsters sometimes also ask people questions about their opinions on social and political issues. Pollster, coined in 1939, comes from poll, "to take votes" or "to survey," and originally, "head of hair." This meaning was first extended from "head" to "person," and then in the 1620s to "counting heads."
Vocabulary lists containing pollster
U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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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 don’t see any swing as a result of this,” said Tamar Hermann, a pollster and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
“I was talking to a Republican consultant who ran one of the big super PACs and he, like, hates all of their media consultants,” Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, told me.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
We asked the pollster Mark Diffley to spell out some of the issues that Marra or Fagan will have to tackle.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
She talked Democratic pollster Doug Schoen into giving her a job.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
What percentage of people refuse to respond, or hang up when they learn a pollster is calling?
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
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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.
