popular

adjective more popular · most popular

1. Common among the general public; generally accepted. Contrary to popular misconception, MacArthur Park is not the worst song ever written.
2. Concerning the people; public.
3. Pertaining to or deriving from the people or general public. At the coming of Calvin thither, the form of their civil regiment was popular, as it continueth at this day: neither king, nor duke, nor nobleman of any authority or power over them, but officers chosen by the people out of themselves, to order all things with public consent.
4. obsolete Of low birth, not noble; vulgar, plebian. Popular and shallow-headed mindes, cannot perceive the grace or comelinesse, nor judge of a smooth and quaint discourse.
5. Aimed at ordinary people, as opposed to specialists etc.; intended for general consumption. As a work of popular science it is exemplary: the focus may be the numbers, but most of the mathematical legwork is confined to the appendices and the accompanying commentary is amusing and witty, as well as informed.
6. obsolete Cultivating the favour of the common people. Such popular humanity is treason.
7. Liked by many people; generally pleasing, widely admired. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.
8. Adapted to the means of the common people; cheap.

Opposite: anonymous, unpopular

noun populars

1. A person who is popular, especially at a school. To pass time, Nicole (Tammy Lynn Michaels), the most vicious of the populars, decides they should play a little game. Earlier that day, in their feminist studies class, the women were discussing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a novel ...
2. in plural An inexpensive newspaper with wide circulation. Serious newspapers boomed; the populars became tabloid supplements to television, with the television schedules and related features increasingly the core of the newspaper.
3. A member of the Populares [...] when their ambassadors were come from Samos, and that they saw not only the populars, but also some others of their own party thought trusty before, to be now changed.

noun Populars

1. A member of any political party with "Popular" in the title, such as the Partido Popular in Spain or Popolari di Italia Domani in Italy