How to Use hoi polloi in a Sentence

hoi polloi

plural noun
  • When irony spreads to the hoi polloi, no good can come of it.
    — Joe Queenan, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2017
  • It was bonded to the belief that hoi polloi could take charge of their story.
    — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2021
  • Now, the hoi polloi can shop Voyage in the comfort of their own homes (or, erm, beds).
    — Zoe Ruffner, Vogue, 16 May 2019
  • What’s fit for the culture-industry élite is deemed unfit for the hoi polloi.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Another is that companies that cater to the hoity toity over the hoi polloi would see sales pick up first.
    — Justin Lahart, WSJ, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Wouldn’t that create an unholy alliance for the easily bored hoi polloi?
    — Tom Hoffarth, latimes.com, 23 June 2019
  • Close the roofs and the stars on the show courts get to play under cover while hoi polloi have to wait or play in the heat when play is again authorized.
    — Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2018
  • The Seventh Avenue elites have ceded control to the hoi polloi.
    — Robin Givhan, The Seattle Times, 6 Aug. 2018
  • Still Musk likes it as way to garner subscription revenue and somehow put big names on the same level as the hoi polloi.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 4 Nov. 2022
  • Transferring seats of power to hoi polloi is not just practically smart but morally long overdue.
    — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 1 Feb. 2018
  • These days, only Bristol Farms provides a full-on immersion in a pampered world bereft of hoi polloi.
    — Tom Carson, Los Angeles Magazine, 19 Feb. 2018
  • Sprinkled in among hoi polloi were celebrities, brands, and pseudonymous trolls, all reaching their own various audiences.
    — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2022
  • In addition to the underground passageway, two covert green rooms are available off the lobby for stars who don’t want to mingle with hoi polloi.
    — Brooks Barnes, New York Times, 14 July 2019
  • Opting for off-list treats such as eel was a lavish gesture that telegraphed a sense of superiority and disdain for the hoi polloi.
    — The Editors, Robb Report, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Roberts decides what Comcast's strategy is, no matter how much the company's hoi polloi shareholders don't like it.
    — Susan Crawford, WIRED, 7 June 2018
  • During auctions, those are the rooms where the most serious collectors can bid in relative luxury and privacy, set apart from hoi polloi.
    — Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 25 May 2018
  • The Raiders will move into a sparkling palace in Vegas next year, replete with luxury suites and plenty of modern amenities for the tourists and hoi polloi.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 15 Dec. 2019
  • Terror and pity abound, but now the titanic protagonists are Jews, blacks, women and others once cast hopelessly among the hoi polloi.
    — Daniel Akst, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2018
  • While open to the general public, the $425 ticket price successfully excludes the hoi polloi from the gates of the famed golf resort.
    — Fortune, 24 Aug. 2019
  • So rather than preferring the hoi polloi, Facebook gives preference to the people who already have power and are catering and toadying to them.
    — Brian Dumaine, Fortune, 29 July 2020
  • The answer lies in a special entrance for common tourists followed by a maze of long hallways seemingly designed to segregate the hoi polloi from esteemed guests of the hotel.
    — Washington Post, 13 June 2019
  • As the last two anecdotes indicate, the Carlyle, like New York City itself, is a place where the elite and the hoi polloi can rub shoulders.
    — Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 10 May 2018
  • That there are a couple of gubernatorial candidates in the ’hood is not exactly generating chatter among the hoi polloi.
    — Washington Post, 26 July 2021
  • Biden’s corporate-progressive alliance forces him to expand welfare for hoi polloi but also seeks to maintain and even expand oligarchal privileges.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 3 Oct. 2021
  • Kapalua Bay Villas has deluxe one and two-bedroom villas perched on sunny, secluded Kapaula Bay, far from the hoi polloi.
    — Ben Davidson Correspondent, Oc Register, 21 Aug. 2025
  • Concierge-level Travel for Discriminating Clients Tired of flying with the hoi polloi?
    — By Brian Melton, star-telegram, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Generally inexpensive, house paint is the Chanel lipstick of interiors, a point at which the hoi polloi and upper crust intersect.
    — Kathryn O’Shea-Evans, WSJ, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Yet everyone who faithfully (hate) watches the Oscars knows that there’s always a lot going on other than demigods doling out awards to one another or smiling for the hoi polloi at home.
    — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2023
  • Next up is none other than The U, yet another member of the college football hoi polloi, in a championship game that might require organ donation to get a ticket.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 10 Jan. 2026
  • Both are complete traffic nightmares; both involve one group of people ending the night elated and drunk while another leaves despondent and drunk; both keep the big stars confined to special seating where the hoi polloi cannot even see them.
    — Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hoi polloi.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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