How to Use hoi polloi in a Sentence

hoi polloi

plural noun
  • When irony spreads to the hoi polloi, no good can come of it.
    Joe Queenan, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Now, the hoi polloi can shop Voyage in the comfort of their own homes (or, erm, beds).
    Zoe Ruffner, Vogue, 16 May 2019
  • Trump has a unique approach to improving the sport: Get rid of the hoi polloi.
    Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, 30 Oct. 2020
  • It was bonded to the belief that hoi polloi could take charge of their story.
    Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2021
  • Close the roofs and the stars on the show courts get to play under cover while hoi polloi have to wait or play in the heat when play is again authorized.
    Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Another is that companies that cater to the hoity toity over the hoi polloi would see sales pick up first.
    Justin Lahart, WSJ, 9 Oct. 2017
  • What’s fit for the culture-industry élite is deemed unfit for the hoi polloi.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2022
  • The Seventh Avenue elites have ceded control to the hoi polloi.
    Robin Givhan, The Seattle Times, 6 Aug. 2018
  • The store announced its opening with good news for the hot dog hoi polloi: 50 cent hot dogs, compared with Papaya King’s 75.
    Alex Traub, New York Times, 24 May 2023
  • As the last two anecdotes indicate, the Carlyle, like New York City itself, is a place where the elite and the hoi polloi can rub shoulders.
    Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 10 May 2018
  • Still Musk likes it as way to garner subscription revenue and somehow put big names on the same level as the hoi polloi.
    Steven Levy, WIRED, 4 Nov. 2022
  • While open to the general public, the $425 ticket price successfully excludes the hoi polloi from the gates of the famed golf resort.
    Fortune, 24 Aug. 2019
  • The Raiders will move into a sparkling palace in Vegas next year, replete with luxury suites and plenty of modern amenities for the tourists and hoi polloi.
    BostonGlobe.com, 15 Dec. 2019
  • These days, only Bristol Farms provides a full-on immersion in a pampered world bereft of hoi polloi.
    Tom Carson, Los Angeles Magazine, 19 Feb. 2018
  • Until the massive mess-up by the Democrats on Caucus Night, the caucuses had performed as advertised: The highfalutin forced to meet and greet the hoi polloi.
    Charlie Szold, National Review, 11 Feb. 2020
  • That’s for the pro football hoi polloi, lesser franchises.
    BostonGlobe.com, 31 Dec. 2019
  • Hayes is correct about one thing, though: the elites are locking out the hoi polloi from highest-level institutions.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 23 June 2012
  • Wouldn’t that create an unholy alliance for the easily bored hoi polloi?
    Tom Hoffarth, latimes.com, 23 June 2019
  • In addition to the underground passageway, two covert green rooms are available off the lobby for stars who don’t want to mingle with hoi polloi.
    Brooks Barnes, New York Times, 14 July 2019
  • So rather than preferring the hoi polloi, Facebook gives preference to the people who already have power and are catering and toadying to them.
    Brian Dumaine, Fortune, 29 July 2020
  • Terror and pity abound, but now the titanic protagonists are Jews, blacks, women and others once cast hopelessly among the hoi polloi.
    Daniel Akst, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2018
  • The answer lies in a special entrance for common tourists followed by a maze of long hallways seemingly designed to segregate the hoi polloi from esteemed guests of the hotel.
    Washington Post, 13 June 2019
  • Concierge-level Travel for Discriminating Clients Tired of flying with the hoi polloi?
    By Brian Melton, star-telegram, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Sprinkled in among hoi polloi were celebrities, brands, and pseudonymous trolls, all reaching their own various audiences.
    Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Transferring seats of power to hoi polloi is not just practically smart but morally long overdue.
    Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 1 Feb. 2018
  • Roberts decides what Comcast's strategy is, no matter how much the company's hoi polloi shareholders don't like it.
    Susan Crawford, WIRED, 7 June 2018
  • Yet everyone who faithfully (hate) watches the Oscars knows that there’s always a lot going on other than demigods doling out awards to one another or smiling for the hoi polloi at home.
    Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2023
  • During auctions, those are the rooms where the most serious collectors can bid in relative luxury and privacy, set apart from hoi polloi.
    Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 25 May 2018
  • Here and there across the Arab world, private VIP services, often in cahoots with official security chiefs, sell fast-track passage to bypass the rigmarole faced by hoi polloi.
    The Economist, 29 June 2019
  • The company evidently believes there’s a power-user subset of the 332 million-plus daily Snapchat users who will fork over four bucks each month to get early access to features not available to the hoi polloi.
    Todd Spangler, Variety, 29 June 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoi polloi.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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