Adjacent Words

Plebeian definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PLEBE'IAN, a. [L. plebeius, from plebs, the common people.]
1. Pertaining to the common people; vulgar; as plebeian minds; plebeian sports.
2. Consisting of common people; as a plebeian throng.
PLEBE'IAN, n. One of the common people or lower ranks of men. [Usually applied to the common people of ancient Rome.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of or associated with the great masses of people; "the common people in those days suffered greatly"; "behavior that branded him as common"; "his square plebeian nose"; "a vulgar and objectionable person"; "the unwashed masses" [syn: common, plebeian, vulgar, unwashed] n
1: one of the common people [syn: plebeian, pleb]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Latin plebeius of the common people, from plebs common people Date: 1533 1. a member of the Roman plebs 2. one of the common people • plebeianism noun II. adjective Date: 1566 1. of or relating to plebeians 2. crude or coarse in manner or style ; common • plebeianly adverb

Britannica Concise

(Latin, plebs) Member of the general citizenry, as opposed to the patrician class, in the ancient Roman republic. Plebeians were originally excluded from the Senate and from all public offices except military tribune, and they were forbidden to marry patricians. Seeking to acquire equal rights, they carried on a campaign called Conflict of the Orders, developing a separate political organization and seceding in protest from the state at least five times. The campaign ceased when a plebeian dictator (appointed 287 BC) made measures passed in the plebeian assembly binding on the whole community.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. a commoner, esp. in ancient Rome. --adj. 1 of low birth; of the common people. 2 uncultured. 3 coarse, ignoble. Derivatives: plebeianism n. Etymology: L plebeius f. plebs plebis the common people

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Plebeian Ple*be"ian (pl[-e]*b[=e]"yan), a. [L. plebeius, from plebs, plebis, the common people: cf. F. pl['e]b['e]ien.] 1. Of or pertaining to the Roman plebs, or common people. 2. Of or pertaining to the common people; vulgar; common; as, plebeian sports; a plebeian throng.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Plebeian Ple*be"ian, n. 1. One of the plebs, or common people of ancient Rome, in distinction from patrician. 2. One of the common people, or lower rank of men.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

also plebian 1. A person, especially one from an earlier period of history, who is plebeian, comes from a low social class. ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. If someone describes something as plebeian, they think that it is unsophisticated and connected with or typical of people from a low social class. (FORMAL) ...a philosophy professor with a cockney accent and an alarmingly plebeian manner... = common ? genteel ADJ: usu ADJ n [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Ignoble, low, mean, base, vulgar, common, popular.

Moby Thesaurus

Babbittish, Cockney, Everyman, John Smith, Philistine, average man, base, baseborn, below the salt, bourgeois, brutish, campy, coarse, cockney, common, common man, commoner, commonplace, crass, gauche, general, high-camp, homely, homespun, humble, ignoble, inferior, kitschy, little fellow, little man, low, low-camp, low-class, lowborn, lowbred, lowbrow, lowly, mean, nonclerical, ordinary, plain, pleb, pop, popular, proletarian, provincial, public, roturier, rude, rustic, shabby-genteel, third-estate, uncouth, undistinguished, ungenteel, unpolished, unrefined, unwashed, vernacular, vulgar, working-class