View synonyms for hoi polloi

hoi polloi

[ hoi puh-loi ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

plural noun

hoi polloi

/ ˌhɔɪ pəˈlɔɪ /

hoi polloi

The masses, the ordinary folk; the phrase is often used in a derogatory way to refer to a popular preference or incorrect opinion: “The hoi polloi may think that Fitzgerald is a great director, but those who know about film realize that his work is commercial and derivative.” From Greek, meaning “the many.”

First recorded in 1835–40; written in Greek letters in 1668 ; from Greek hoi polloí “the many”

Greek, literally: the many

This piques romantic curiosity in a fellow refugee of the hoi polloi.

Beyond the property lines, too, Chilmark is well tailored to the hoi polloi avoider.

Most are delighted to reside in ivory butter-cream towers far from the roiling, boiling, chaotic hoi polloi below.

No use letting the "hoi-polloi" get on to it that I was a greenhorn.

And what a Vandervent eats for breakfast makes snappy reading, I think you'd call it, for hoi polloi, eh?

As was well known, when Harris Collins performed he performed only for the élite, for the hoi-polloi of the trained-animal world.

Hoi polloi had used another entrance by which to climb to the upper galleries.

The book Im at work on is a deliberate attempt to pander to the depraved taste of hoi polloi.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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