minjung

M3I1N1J8U1N1G2

noun

In South Korea, peasants or working-class people.

OriginKorean 민중(民衆) →
Scrabble 17
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounminjung pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlygovernmentIn South Korea, peasants or working-class people.

    Jesus was minjung and the friend of the minjung, teaching forgiveness and love of enemies, but Moses was also minjung, political leader of his people against oppression.

    2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 978
    2 more examples

    The minjung have learned to dream of a world from which oppression, conflict and suffering have been removed; a world where they are no longer the ruled, but the rulers of their own lives and destinies, and the subjects of their own history.

    1996, Sang Taek Lee, Religion and Social Formation in Korea, page 171

    Therefore the theologians' main concern was not dealing with individual poor people but rather to do with social process and the system which prevents the minjung from coming out of their misery.

    2008, Sebastian CH Kim, Christian Theology in Asia, page 140

Origin

  1. Korean민중(民衆)
  2. Englishminjung

From Korean 민중(民衆) (minjung), from Middle Chinese 民眾 (MC mjin tsyuwngH, “common people, the masses”). Compare Mandarin 民眾 /民众 (mínzhòng).

More words from Korean

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

minjung. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minjung

MLA

“minjung.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minjung. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “minjung,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minjung.

Source: minjung on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.