Definition of "proletariat"

proletariat

/ˌpɹəʊ.lɪˈtɛə.ɹɪ.ət/

noun
plural proletariats
1. (often derogatory, also figuratively) The lowest class of society; also, the lower classes of society generally; the masses.
2. (Marxism) Wage earners collectively, excluding salaried workers; people who own no capital and depend on their labour for survival; the working class, especially when seen as engaged in a class struggle with the bourgeoisie (“the capital-owning class”).
  Quotations
  Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie to-day, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.
  1848 February, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels [i.e., Friedrich Engels], “Bourgeois and Proletarians”, in Samuel Moore, transl., Manifesto of the Communist Party. […], 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: National Executive Committee of the Socialist Labor Party, published 1898, page 27
3. (chiefly Ancient Rome, historical) The lowest class of citizens, who had no property and few rights, and were regarded as contributing only their offspring to the state.