Communist

Communist

See also: communist

English

Alternative forms

• Commie; Commo (Australia)

Noun

Communist (plural Communists)

1. A member of a formally constituted Communist Party.
   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. III:

     ...all through the between-war years no Socialist programme that was both revolutionary and workable ever appeared; basically, no doubt, because no one genuinely wanted any major change to happen... The Communists wanted to go on and on, suffering a comfortable martyrdom, meeting with endless defeats and afterwards putting the blame on other people.

2. A proponent of the kind of communism formally espoused by such a party, typically either Marxism, or more commonly, Leninism or Maoism.
3. (inexact) Any citizen of a country controlled by such a party, particularly Red Chinese and (historical) Soviets.
   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine‎:

     I caught a glimpse of them through the half-opened door, and had a passing impression of prosperous and intelligent men, with astrakhan collars to their coats, glistening top-hats, and every appearance of that bourgeois well-being which the successful Communist so readily assumes.

4. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communist, a proponent of the general philosophy of communism.

Synonyms

• (party member): Red, cadre, party member, apparatchik (general); Chicom (PRC)
• (philosophical proponent): Red, Marxist (general); Bolshevik, Leninist, Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Stalinite (USSR); Maoist, Chicom (PRC); Titoist (Yugoslavia); Hoxhaist (Albania); Sankarist (Burkina Faso)
• (citizen of a communist country): Red (general); Soviet (USSR); Red Chinese, Chicom (PRC)

Derived terms

• comsymp

Translations

communist — see communist

Adjective

Communist (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to a formally constituted Communist Party.
2. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communist, of or related to the general philosophy of communism.
3. (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Alternative letter-case form of communistic, embodying the ideals of communism.

Translations

communist — see communist

Anagrams

• uncommits