PROLETARIAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does proletariat mean? 

• PROLETARIAT (noun)
  The noun PROLETARIAT has 1 sense:

1. a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

  Familiarity information: PROLETARIAT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROLETARIAT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

labor; labour; proletariat; working class

Context example:

there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field

Hypernyms ("proletariat" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Meronyms (members of "proletariat"):

prole; proletarian; worker (a member of the working class (not necessarily employed))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "proletariat"):

labor force; labor pool (the source of trained people from which workers can be hired)

lumpenproletariat ((Marxism) the unorganized lower levels of the proletariat who are not interested in revolutionary advancement)

organized labor (employees who are represented by a labor union)

Derivation:

proletarian (belonging to or characteristic of the proletariat)