populace

From Middle French populace, from Italian popolaccio.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒpjʊləs/
• (US) enPR: päpʹyə-ləs, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑpjələs/
• Homophone: populous

populace (countable and uncountable, plural populaces)

1. The common people of a nation.

   • The populace despised their ignorant leader.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.

2. The inhabitants of a nation.

• Do not confuse populace (a noun) with populous (an adjective).

• (common people of a nation): common people, hoi polloi, masses, people, rabble, riff-raff
• (inhabitants of a nation): inhabitants, population

• IPA^(key): [ˈpopulat͡sɛ]

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populace f

1. population

• populační

• populace in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• populace in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

populace f (plural populaces)

1. populace, common people

• “populace” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).