communist

Pluralcommunists

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A supporter of communism who advocates a society based on the common ownership of property.

   The young communist argued that private property only deepened inequality.

   Early-twentieth-century communists organized factory workers into cooperatives.

   SimilarMarxist, socialist

   Oppositecapitalist

   Note

   Here the word names a genuine adherent of the doctrine, which calls for collective or state ownership of the means of production and the abolition of private property and class distinctions. In political and philosophical writing its sense is exact: a declared believer. That precision is what separates it from the loose label for any radical, where no actual belief is implied.

2. 2
   adjective

   Relating to communism, or supporting and advocating its system of common ownership.

   The communist movement spread rapidly across the region during the 1920s.

   Their economic policies were openly communist in design.

   SimilarMarxist, socialist

   Oppositecapitalist

   Note

   French supplied the word: communiste, built from commun, meaning "common, communal," plus the suffix -iste. English speakers can also read it as commune + -ist. As an adjective it is gradable, taking more communist and most communist. Policies can therefore be openly or more communist, describing how far they lean toward the doctrine rather than simply whether they belong to it.

3. 3
   nounnonstandardcountable

   A revolutionary or subversive radical of any sort, regarded as a threat to the established order.

   To the old guard, any reformer who challenged tradition was a communist.

   The newspaper dismissed the activists as communists bent on tearing down society.

   Similarradical, subversive, revolutionary, red

   Oppositeconservative

   Note

   A label pinned on people rather than one they choose. In this nonstandard, usually pejorative use, it stretches to cover any reformer, activist or subversive, whether or not they hold communist views. The broadening was especially common in mid-twentieth-century anti-radical rhetoric. Use it this way only when reporting someone else's accusation, because in your own voice it reads as an insult rather than a description.

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