Standard Lemma guide

peasantry

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈpɛzəntɹi/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P EH1 Z AH0 N T R IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Impoverished rural farm workers, either as serfs, small freeholders or hired hands.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, historical, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Ignorant people of the lowest social status; bumpkins, rustics.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The condition of being a peasant; the position, rank, conduct, or quality of a peasant.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

the class of peasants

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: class, stratum, social class, socio-economic class

History

Etymology

From peasant + -ry, from Middle English paissaunt.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: fshatarësi — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Belarusian: сяля́нства (sjaljánstva) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Bulgarian: селячество (seljačestvo) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Catalan: pagesia — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Chinese Mandarin: 農民 /农民 (nóngmín) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Czech: rolnictvo — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Dutch: boerenstand — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Estonian: talurahvas — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Finnish: maalaisköyhälistö — impoverished rural farm workers
  • French: paysannerie — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Georgian: გლეხობა (glexoba) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • German: Bauernschaft — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Greek: αγροτιά (agrotiá) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Japanese: 農民 (nōmin) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Korean: 농민 (nongmin) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Polish: chłopstwo — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Portuguese: campesinato — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Romagnol: cuntadnânza — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Russian: крестья́нство (krestʹjánstvo) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Serbo-Croatian: сеља́штво — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Serbo-Croatian: seljáštvo — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Spanish: campesinado — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Swedish: allmoge — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Ukrainian: селя́нство (seljánstvo) — impoverished rural farm workers
  • Vietnamese: nông dân — impoverished rural farm workers