Definition of "popular" []

• Widely liked or appreciated: a popular resort. (adjective)
• Liked by acquaintances; sought after for company: "Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved” ( Margaret Fuller). (adjective)
• Of, representing, or carried on by the people at large: the popular vote. (adjective)
• Fit for, adapted to, or reflecting the taste of the people at large: popular entertainment; popular science. (adjective)
• Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general: a popular misunderstanding of the issue. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Thus that _one means to national prosperity is popular education_ is an immediate inference, if the evidence for it is no more than the admission that _popular education is a means to national prosperity: _ Similarly, it is an immediate inference that _Some authors are vain_, if it be granted that _All authors are vain_."
• "The popular vote had been so light that it really looked as though the people had cared very little which candidate should succeed; and to talk about a manifestation of the _popular will_ was absurd, for the only real manifestation had been of popular indifference."
• "They may resent the imposition of American culture in the form of movies and music, but that’s only because our popular culture is so *popular* that it drowns out native culture."