Table of Contents
Definition of Proletariat
(noun) The working class; wage earning laborers.
Proletariat Pronunciation
Syllabification: pro·le·tar·i·at
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /proh-luh-tAIR-ee-uht/
- British English – /proh-li-tEUH-riuht/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˌproʊləˈtɛriət/
- British English – /ˌprəʊlᵻˈtɛːrɪət/
Usage Notes
- The proletariat is the opposite of the bourgeoisie.
- Also called working class.
Related Videos
Additional Information
- Word origin of “proletariat” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Dahrendorf, Ralf. 1988. The Modern Social Conflict: An Essay on the Politics of Liberty. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- Giddens, Anthony. 1973. The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies. London: Hutchinson.
- Grusky, David B., ed. 2014. Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
- Kerbo, Harold Ray. 2012. Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical, Comparative, and Global Perspective. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. 1848. The Communist Manifesto.
- Massey, Douglas S. 2007. Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Mosca, Gaetano. 1939. The Ruling Class. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Weber, Max. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, edited by H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.
Related Terms
- capitalism
- class
- communism
- distribution
- division of labor
- Durkheim, Emile
- economic system
- economics
- mode of production
- relations to production
- stratification
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Cite the Definition of Proletariat
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “proletariat.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 9, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/proletariat/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
proletariat. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/proletariat/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “proletariat.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/proletariat/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“proletariat.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/proletariat/>.