populous

English

Etymology

First used in English in the mid 15th century; from Latin populosus (“full of people, populous”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒpjʊləs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) enPR: päpʹyə-ləs, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑpjələs/
• Homophone: populace

Adjective

populous (comparative more populous, superlative most populous)

1. Having a large population.

   China is the most populous country in the world.

2. (of a language) Spoken by a large number of people.

   Chinese is the most populous language.

   • 1974, Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina M. Hyams, An Introduction to Language, →ISBN, page 524:

     The Sino-Tibetan family includes Mandarin, the most populous language in the world, spoken by more than one billion Chinese.

3. Densely populated.

   The Nile delta is a populous region.

4. Crowded with people.

   Airport departure halls are often populous places during the rush hours.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse populace (a noun) with populous (an adjective).

Translations

having a large population

• Bulgarian: многолюден (bg) (mnogoljuden)
• Catalan: populós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 人口稠密 (zh) (rénkǒu chóumì), 人口多 (rénkǒu duō)

• Finnish: väkirikas, runsasväkinen
• French: populeux (fr)
• German: volkreich, bevölkerungsreich (de), bevölkert (de)
• Italian: popoloso (it) m, popolosa f
• Japanese: 人口の多い (じんこうのおおい, jinkō-no ōi)
• Manx: pobbylagh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: folkerik, befolkningsrik

  Nynorsk: folkerik

• Polish: ludny
• Portuguese: populoso (pt)
• Russian: густонаселённый (ru) (gustonaseljónnyj), многолю́дный (ru) (mnogoljúdnyj)
• Spanish: poblado, populoso
• Swedish: folkrik (sv)
• Vietnamese: đông (vi), đông đảo (vi)
• Welsh: poblog (cy)

spoken by a large number of people

• German: häufig gesprochen, weit verbreitet

densely populated

• Bulgarian: гъсто населен (gǎsto naselen)
• Finnish: tiheästi asuttu
• German: dichtbevölkert, (dicht) bevölkert, (dicht) besiedelt
• Latin: celeber (la)
• Manx: pobbylagh

crowded with people

• Finnish: ruuhkainen
• German: menschenüberfüllt
• Latin: celeber (la)