the proletariat[+ singular or plural verb]SSCLASS IN SOCIETY the class of workers who own no property and work for wages, especially in factories, building things etc – used in socialistwritings 无产阶级
—proletarianadjectiveadj
—proletarian noun [countableC]
Examples from the Corpus
proletariat• Secondly, the difference in wealth between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat will increase as the accumulation of capitalproceeds.• Since they are non-producers, the bourgeoisie are therefore exploiting the proletariat, the real producers of wealth.• Even though the real wages and living standards of the proletariat may rise, its members will become poorer in relation to the bourgeoisie.• Engels was to remark that since property was not a consideration, only the proletariat could marry for love.• For Lukács it was the proletariat who were to achieve this praxis.• The proletariat was hardly more impressed by the Manifesto.• The proletariat, in contrast, own no means of production whatever.• This proletariat interests neither the opposition forces nor the regimes based on the sacred.
Originproletariat
(1800-1900)Frenchprolétariat, from Latinproletarius; PROLETARIAN