semi-proletariat

A form of semiproletariat — The class of marginalized workers who lack regular employment, such as working peasants, pedlars, small handicrafts makers, and the underemployed.

Meanings

nounsemi-proletariat (countable and uncountable, plural semi-proletariats)

plural semi-proletariats

  1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of semiproletariat.

    The semi-proletariat, living in extremely poor conditions, is the urban class with the greatest potential for unity with the proletariat.

    2010, Sudeep Chakravarti, Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country, →ISBN, page 396
    2 more examples

    The numerical strength of the semi-proletariat is even more difficult to assess than that of other social strata; being underestimated and hardly identifiable in official statistics is itself a feature of social marginality.

    1997, Volker Perthes, The Political Economy of Syria Under Asad, →ISBN, page 100

    In comparison to the pattern of class relations in the 1920-1950 period outlined in Figure 1, the most notable change is the rise of the agro-industrial elite to preeminence everywhere except Guatemala, and the creation of a semi-proletariat particularly in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

    1998, Jeffery M. Paige, Coffee and Power, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

semi-proletariat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-proletariat

MLA

“semi-proletariat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-proletariat. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “semi-proletariat,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-proletariat.

Source: semi-proletariat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.