populace

C2+ Topic:Places & Geography

US /ˈpɑpjələs/ UK /ˈpɒpjʊləs/ See IPA manual

Homophones

populous /ˈpɑpjələs/

Meanings

1

noun
the general public; the ordinary people of a place

The new policy was wildly unpopular with the local populace.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the general public; the... public peoplecitizenrymasses inhabitants population commonalty multitude

Word family

Related forms popular population populous populist

Simplified etymology

Populace, recorded from the late 16th century, derives from Latin populus “the people” or “populace.” It belongs to the same word family as people, population, and popular.

Etymology

From Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio ('rabble, common people'), a pejorative of popolo ('people'), from Latin populus ('people').

populace Middle French populus itc-ola

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Places & Geography

External links

# populace

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɑpjələs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpɒpjʊləs/

## Meanings
1. the general public; the ordinary people of a place

## Examples
- The new policy was wildly unpopular with the local populace.

## Synonyms
- public
- people
- citizenry
- masses
- inhabitants
- population
- commonalty
- multitude

## Related Forms
- popular
- population
- populous
- populist

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: populace
- Root: populus

## Etymology
From Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio ('rabble, common people'), a pejorative of popolo ('people'), from Latin populus ('people').

## AI Etymology
Populace is from Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio ('rabble, common people'), a pejorative of popolo ('people'), from Latin populus ('people'). Important recorded forms include populace (Middle French) and populus (Latin). The modern sense follows that older lexical line closely. In current use it covers the general public; the ordinary people of a place. The wider family includes related words such as popular, population, populous, and populist.

## Topics
- Places & Geography

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