Marxist

How to spell marxist

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce marxist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does marxist mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the political and economic theories of Karl Marx, especially class struggle and common ownership.
2. nounA person who follows or advocates the theories of Karl Marx.

Marxist in a sentence

• adjective

  The lecturer offered a marxist reading of the factory dispute.

• noun

  As a committed marxist, he believed wealth should be owned collectively.

• adjective

  Her essay applied marxist economic theory to modern labour markets.

• noun

  The panel included a liberal economist and a self-described marxist.

Where does marxist come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is an eponym, formed directly from the surname of the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818 to 1883), with the addition of the suffix -ist, which English uses to mean a follower or adherent of a particular doctrine. The surname Marx itself is a German shortening of Markus, ultimately the Latin name Marcus. The term entered English in the later nineteenth century, soon after Marx and Friedrich Engels published their political and economic writings, to describe people who held to his theories of class struggle and historical materialism. The capital M is retained in standard writing because the word is built on a personal name, and the spelling trap lies precisely there: the unusual cluster -rx- followed by -ist looks foreign to the eye even though every letter is pronounced. Other eponyms of the same era, such as Darwinist and Hegelian, were coined on exactly the same -ist or -ian pattern.

How the word is built

• Marx (surname of Karl Marx)
• -ist (one who follows or adheres to)