# popular

Pronunciation: US say "POP-yuh-lur" /ˈpɑpjəlɚ/; UK say "POP-yuu-luh" /ˈpɒpjʊlə/

## Adjective

1. Widely liked or admired; enjoyed by a large number of people.
   - Simple: Liked or enjoyed by many people.
   - _The hiking trail is popular with families on fall weekends._
   - _Her novels were popular long before anyone turned them into movies._
2. Common among the general public; widely held or generally accepted.
   - Simple: Common among ordinary people and believed or accepted by most of them.
   - _Contrary to popular belief, bats are not blind._
   - _Popular opinion held that the war would end within a few months._
3. Aimed at ordinary people rather than specialists; intended for a general audience.
   - Simple: Intended for ordinary people rather than experts.
   - _She writes popular science books that explain physics without a single equation._
   - _The station replaced its scholarly lecture series with popular programming for general listeners._
4. Relating to, coming from, or carried on by the people as a whole, rather than a ruling group, as in a popular vote, a popular uprising, or a legal action open to any citizen.
   - Simple: Coming from or done by ordinary people as a whole, like a popular vote.
   - _The candidate won the popular vote but still lost the election._
   - _The uprising drew its strength from popular anger at rising prices._
6. Suited to the means of ordinary people; inexpensive.
   - Simple: Cheap enough for ordinary people to buy.
   - _The opera house reserved its Saturday matinees for performances at popular prices._
   - _Railroads offered popular fares to fill their cheapest cars with day-trippers._

## Noun

5. A well-liked person, especially a student who belongs to the school's most admired social group.
   - Simple: A person many others like, especially a well-liked student at school.
   - _In ninth grade she longed to be invited to sit with the populars, who seemed to decide what was cool._
   - _The populars set the dress code for the whole eighth grade._
7. A low-priced newspaper aimed at a mass readership and sold in large numbers.
   - Simple: A cheap newspaper that many people buy and read.
   - _Historians of the British press often divide the papers of the 1950s into the populars, with their huge readerships, and the smaller quality titles._
   - _While the quality papers ran long analyses of the budget, the populars led with a celebrity divorce and a football transfer._

## Adjective

8. Of low or common birth; not noble; plebeian. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Born into an ordinary family, not a noble one.
9. Courting or seeking the favor of the common people. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Trying to win the support or approval of ordinary people.

## Other meanings

- (noun) One of the populares, politicians in the late Roman Republic who sought support through the people's assemblies, often in opposition to the Senate.

## Origin

Middle English populer was taken from both Old French populaire and Latin populāris; the Latin word joins populus ("people") to the suffix -āris ("-ar").

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