anti-elite

adjective

ˌan-tē-ā-ˈlēt How to pronounce anti-elite (audio)
-i-,
-ē-,
ˌan-tī-
: opposing the elite : anti-elitist
Ford rode a wave of anti-elite sentiment to power …Matt Ford and Rosa Smith

Examples of anti-elite in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The President and police have since apologized for Affan’s death, but his passing only deepened anti-government and anti-elite sentiment among the protesters. Chad De Guzman, Time, 1 Sep. 2025 The revolting social media cheers following the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO on a Manhattan street, as well as the success of anti-elite entertainment like HBO’s Mountainhead, are cultural signposts of this profound dissatisfaction. Preston Fore, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2025 To this day a lively, biting, macabre comedy that was controversial in its time (and banned in Franco-era Spain for its anti-elite subtext), yet its core themes still resonate with uncanny oracular power. Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 29 July 2025 Broadly speaking, the Anti-Masons were an anti-elite party — populists of a sort, although not in the way that term would be used at the end of the 19th century. Joseph Thorndike, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025 Kennedy likes to frame his actions in the language of anti-elitism: the vaccines, in his estimation, are being pushed by an out-of-control Big Pharma establishment and therefore their restriction is inherently an anti-elite move. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 29 May 2025 In reaction to the excesses and ideological overreach of the Left, a meaningful portion of the Right will embrace figures deemed sufficiently anti-elite, anti-globalist, and anti-woke — regardless of the evidence against their character or integrity. Liam Siegler, National Review, 12 Mar. 2025 In the United States, Trump effectively consolidated the center-right and far right into the Republican Party and twice won the presidency on an anti-elite message. Robert Petkoff Krish Seenivasan Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2025 Populists have embraced popular and science-backed policies that align with an anti-elite stance. Dominik Stecuła, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of anti-elite was in 1971

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Cite this Entry

“Anti-elite.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-elite. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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