prole
Americannoun
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a member of the proletariat.
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a person who performs routine tasks in a society.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of prole
First recorded in 1885–90; shortened form of proletariat
Explanation
A prole is a worker, or a member of the blue-collar working class. Someone who's employed at a mill or a factory is considered a prole. Prole is short for proletariat, the collective name for workers that's especially common in (and was popularized by) Marxist economics. The word comes from the Latin proletarius, "citizen of the lowest class," used in ancient Rome to describe the group of people who didn't own property and whose only contribution to society was having children. It comes from proles, or "offspring."
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:
In language as crass and cadenced as gunfire, Mamet turned their man-eat-man philosophy, which some call capitalism, into brutal prole poetry: a poetry of predation, you might even say.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
Two people left a Washington dinner party rather than share a table with a prole like Bill O'Reilly?
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2017
In King Arthur, Law’s problem – Oh, will no one rid me of this cheeky prole? – is more interesting than Hunnam’s problem because Law is more interesting than Hunnam.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2017
He was not just Mr Cameron’s top prole; security types were impressed by his grasp of strategy.
From Economist ● Jun. 26, 2014
“Nex’, please!” yelled the white-aproned prole with the ladle.
From "1984" by George Orwell
This level of self-regard in a writer and thinker as justifiably exalted as Smith may explain why our nation is turning on reading: aristocracies breed resentment among the proles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
At that time he is merely the chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission, and his antagonists are not yet sympathetic proles but out-of-touch gentry.
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2022
But if hope lies with the proles, and that extraordinary example of the proles, is this woman singing a song about lost love and memory and yearning while hanging out diapers.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2021
"The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention."
From The Guardian ● Jan. 24, 2013
The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
