leftist

From left +‎ -ist.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛf.tɪst/

  • Audio (Texas, Austin):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈlef.tɪst/

leftist (plural leftists)

1. (politics, generally) A person who holds views associated with the political left.

   Synonym: left-winger

   Coordinate terms: centrist, rightist

   • 1976, June Teufel Dreyer, China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China‎^[1], Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 214:

     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.

2. (politics, specifically) Someone who holds socialist or communist-leaning economic views, usually alongside progressive social views; an anticapitalist.

leftist (comparative more leftist, superlative most leftist)

1. Of or pertaining to the political left.
   • 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:

         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.

• far-leftist

• lefty

• ittself, liftest