leftist

plural leftists

1. generallygovernmentA person who holds views associated with the political left.

   The first major clash between the two groups occurred in Shih-ho-tzu on January 26, 1967, with the leftists admitting they had suffered a bloody defeat.

   1976, June Teufel Dreyer, China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 214

   Synonyms: left-winger

2. specificallygovernmentSomeone who holds socialist or communist-leaning economic views, usually alongside progressive social views; an anticapitalist.

comparative more leftist · superlative most leftist

1. Of or pertaining to the political left.

   1 more example

   In law school, when we students thought the outcome of a case was determined by a rule we had studied, leftist professors admonished us, “Tools not rules!” In other words, rules control nothing; they’re merely tools you manipulate for the results you want. The fancy word for this kind of amorality is “instrumentalism,” and it subverts the rule of law.

   2023 November 29 – December 5, Rob Natelson, “Why I Still Doubt the 2020 Election”, in The Epoch Times, U.S. edition, number 488, A, page 17