populace

noun

pop·​u·​lace ˈpä-pyə-ləs 

1

: the common people : masses

2

: population

Did you know?

Populace is usually used to refer to all the people of a country. Thus, we're often told that an educated and informed populace is essential for a healthy American democracy. Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous radio "Fireside Chats" informed and reassured the American populace in the 1930s as we struggled through the Great Depression. We often hear about what "the general populace" is thinking or doing, but generalizing about something so huge can be tricky.

Synonyms

• commoners
• commons
• crowd
• herd
• hoi polloi
• mass
• millions
• mob
• multitude
• people
• plebeians
• plebs
• public
• rank and file

Examples of populace in a Sentence

The populace has suffered greatly.

high officials awkwardly mingling with the general populace

Recent Examples on the Web

Trump’s White House sent $1,200 checks to the populace in 2020, all of which featured Trump’s signature. —Tim Collins, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 11 Dec. 2024

Being entombed alive is an apt metaphor for a populace that had its civic freedoms squashed by the Assad dynasty for half a century. —Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2024

These increases have hit a populace already struggling with widespread unemployment and soaring inflation of 34%, the highest level in nearly 30 years. —Nimi Princewill, CNN, 1 Aug. 2024

Bozzo leveled criticisms at the current city government, arguing for more collaboration between officials and the populace. —Luis Melecio-Zambrano, The Mercury News, 28 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French, "mob, rabble," borrowed from Italian popolazzo, popolaccio "the common people, the masses, rabble, mob," from popolo people entry 1 + -azzo, -accio, augmentative and pejorative suffix, going back to Latin -āceus -aceous

Note: The extension of -āceus to nouns, through deletion of the modified head noun, takes place already in Latin (see note at -aceous), and continued into Italian—compare focaccia "flatbread," already attested in Late Latin, from Latin focus "hearth." At some point the notion of appurtenance or similarity appears to have led to that of devaluation, whence the application of the Italian suffix to things of inappropriately large size or inferior quality. The derivatives popolazzo and popolaccio show both the Tuscan outcome -accio and a variant -azzo that represents the outcome of -āceus in Upper Italian or southern Italian dialects.

First Known Use

1572, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

populace

noun

pop·​u·​lace ˈpäp-yə-ləs 

1

: the common people : masses

2

: population sense 1