popularity

plural popularities

1. uncountableusuallyThe quality or state of being popular; especially, the state of being widely liked or in favor with the people at large.

   gain popularity

   5 more examples

   This destination has increased in popularity after great reviews in the guide books.

   Politicians are rarely known for their popularity.

   The massive popularity of the book led to it being adapted into a movie.

   Its popularity extends across all ages.

   enjoy popularity

2. archaicuncountableusuallyThe quality or state of being adapted or pleasing to common, poor, or vulgar people

   So this Gallant, labouring to avoid Popularity, falls into a habit of Affectation, Ten thousand times hatefuller than the former.

   1600, Ben Jonson, Every Man Out of His Humour

   1. archaicbroadlyuncountableusuallycheapness; inferiority; vulgarity.
3. archaicuncountableusuallySomething which obtains, or is intended to obtain, the favor of the vulgar; claptrap.

   Popularities, and circumstances which […] sway the ordinary judgment.

   1597, Francis Bacon, The Colours or Good and Evil

4. obsoleteuncountableusuallyThe act of courting the favour of the people.

   Cato (the younger) charged Muraena, and indicted him in open court for popularity and ambition.

   1603, Plutarch, translated by Philemon Holland, Moralia

5. archaicuncountableusuallyPublic sentiment; general passion.

   A little time be allowed for the madness of popularity to cease.

   1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC

6. uncountableusuallySomething that is popular.

   1 more example

   It has fairly reeled on Schiedam Schnapps; and even the infant has his little popularities, having passed from catnip and caraway to Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup. There is never a time when the public will not declare upon any well-advertised remedy its belief in the motto of the German doctors, "We do cure everything but death."

   1866, “Invalidism”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 18, number 109