# democrat

Pronunciation: US say "DEM-uh-krat" /ˈdɛməkɹæt/; UK

## Noun · Democrat

1. A member or supporter of a political party called the Democratic Party, especially the one in the United States. *(US)*
   - Simple: A member or supporter of a Democratic Party, especially the US Democratic Party.
   - _A lifelong Democrat, she has worked on every presidential campaign since college._
   - _Democrats and Republicans in the Senate struck a deal to keep the government open._

## Noun

2. Someone who supports democracy and argues for democratic politics, originally in contrast to the aristocrats of Revolutionary France.
   - Simple: A person who believes in democracy, where the people choose their government.
   - _A committed democrat, he refused to serve in a government that had seized power by force._
   - _The country's democrats welcomed the end of military rule and the promise of free elections._
4. A ruler of a democracy in which the people govern through elected representatives.
   - Simple: A leader who runs a country where the people elect their lawmakers.
   - _Unlike an autocrat, a democrat has to build a coalition large enough to win a national vote._
   - _The study compared how long democrats and dictators typically stay in power._

## Adjective · Democrat

3. Belonging to or connected with the Democratic Party in the United States, a disputed use often meant as a slight. *(nonstandard, US)*
   - Simple: Having to do with the Democratic Party in the US, often used to sound rude about it.
   - _Speaking at the rally, the congressman blamed rising prices on Democrat policies._
   - _The caller complained that Democrat-run cities were wasting tax money._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A large but lightly built open wagon, drawn by horses and fitted with two or more seats.

## Origin

French démocrate, which English borrowed, was formed from démocratie on the model of aristocrate (“aristocrat”). Within English, the word is demo- + -crat.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/democrat (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).