as in low
belonging to the class of people of low social or economic rank
a kind of music that has traditionally appealed to the lumpen segment of the musical audience
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Recent Examples of lumpen
Yet Empire Falls translates into a lumpen, stodgy miniseries, despite a fine central performance from Harris as a divorced diner owner with deep roots in the town and a structure that allows the past to keep informing and enriching the present.
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Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2024
Rhys spent decades, often isolated and paranoid, in lumpen houses and apartments in and out of London, before success arrived late.
—New York Times, 20 June 2022
Then the judges booted her for wearing a lumpen quilt skirt accessorized with a blow-up-doll boyfriend.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 20 Apr. 2022
Tye Sheridan gives a somewhat lumpen performance as the author’s stand-in, an aspiring writer whose family background is funky, to say the least.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Jan. 2022
The films of Sean Baker celebrate lumpen characters and communities that subsist within the cracks of America’s neoliberal landscape.
—Erik Morse, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2021
Some collectors are leaning further into technology by amassing digital artworks, while other sets of buyers are coping by prizing ceramics, with their fragile, lumpen tactility.
—Kelly Crow, WSJ, 6 July 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lumpen
Adjective
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The president argued that inflation was already low enough to start cutting rates.—
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There’s something motivating about having this low, electronic drumbeat pushing you along, trying to go faster and faster and faster.—
Adjective
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These ranged from the aristocratic elite who dominated the military and bureaucracy and yearned for a return to monarchy, to communists who sought proletarian rule, to the National Socialists who wanted to establish a right-wing dictatorship.—
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This new proletarian culture was personified in the ideal of the New Soviet Man.—
Adjective
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While this usually isn't a cause for concern, sharing drinks introduces additional bacteria, and touching the glass or straw with unwashed hands can introduce more.—
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Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.—
Adjective
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Below that sits the pedestrian CLK 500 and plebeian CLK 350.—
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Across the lake, on the plebeian side, up the shoreline a mile or so, in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, stand twin 32-story towers dubbed Trump Plaza of the Palm Beaches.—
Adjective
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This low-life is lying in my jail, getting three meals a day, whining and crying.—
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Their father, my grandfather, was a career low-life criminal and was in jail all the time for forgery and conning people.—
Adjective
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Singer Island has a humble personality, with more reverence for its natural beauty and less regard for glamorous perfection than its southern neighbor.—
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This humble ingredient is a powerhouse in all kinds of cooking.—
Adjective
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Although the Ripken card launched many conspiracy theories as to whether the inclusion of its vulgar phrase was truly a mistake or a Fleer marketing ploy, there is a long history of errors making it through quality control in sports card production.—
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The joke swap during last year's Christmas episode went to some particularly jaw-dropping places after Che made Jost read a vulgar joke about Johansson.—
Adjective
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Here, however, Makowsky examines a purely ignoble figure who feels entitled without accomplishing a thing.—
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The Jets recently saw their local deliveries plummet to an ignoble 4.5 rating, which translates to a meager 350,530 Gang Green households tuning in to WBCS-2.—
Cite this Entry
“Lumpen.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lumpen. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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