demagogue

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

After Pericles’ death from plague in 429 B.C., rhetorical and political authority is seized by Cleon, an upstart demagogue who is the “most violent person in Athens” and “the most persuasive.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

But he also turned on his vice-president, reposting a comment on X in which she was labelled a "traitor, a demagogue and stupid in economic terms".

From BBC • Jul. 14, 2025

Lines like that, though, do not do Miller justice, as either a villain, a demagogue, or a policymaker.

From Slate • Jan. 20, 2025

It was a speech you might expect from any demagogue.

From Salon • Jul. 24, 2024

Yet we insist that President Johnson's view is one that a true man may honestly, conscientiously hold—may hold it without being a hypocrite, a demagogue, or a tool of the slave power.

From The Life of Lyman Trumbull by White, Horace