populace — meaning in English

English meaning

• populace noun The ordinary people of a country or region as a whole.
• rabble noun A disorderly, unruly crowd of people.
• riffraff noun People regarded as disreputable or of low social standing, especially as a group.

Senses

populace is used for these senses in English:

• hoi polloi (collective) The common people; the masses. (Used with or without the definite article.)
• lumpenproletariat (Marxism) The lowest stratum of the proletariat, whose mental and physical health, mores and morale have deteriorated, through exploitation by the bourgeoisie, to a degree where they cannot build class consciousness and hence cannot be mobilized for the revolution.
• populace The common people of a nation.
• rabble (derogatory) The mass of common people; the lowest class of populace. [from 1550s]
• riffraff (informal, somewhat, derogatory) The rabble; crowds; people of a low, disreputable or undesirable class or position.
• third estate (by extension) The commoners, collectively, in any society.

rabble — full definition

1. noun A disorderly, unruly crowd of people.
2. noun A dismissive term for ordinary or common people, viewed as beneath one's notice.

Related French words