Quick Definition
δῆμος, οῦ, ὁ n.m. the people, multitude, rabble
Strong's Definition
from 1210; the public (as bound together socially)
KJV Usage: people
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament
noun, m. | -ου | ἀποδημέω · ἀπόδημος · δημηγορέω · δημιουργός · δημόσιος · ἐκδημέω · ἐπιδημέω · παρεπίδημος · συνέκδημος
11.78 · Groups and Classes of Persons and Members of Such Groups and Classes · Socio-Political
assembly, gathering a group of citizens assembled for socio-political activities It is possible that in ἐκκλησία[c] there is somewhat more focus upon the people being together as a legal assembly, while in the case of δῆμος the emphasis is merely upon a meeting of citizens. But in the NT one cannot distinguish clearly between the meanings of these two words.
ἐκκλησία[c] and δῆμος may be rendered in some languages as ‘a meeting of the people who belonged to that place’ or ‘... who were inhabitants of that town’ or ‘... whose homes were in that town.’
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
δῆμος, -ov, 6, the people, the mass of the people assembled in a public place: Acts xii. 22; xix. 33; dyew [RG], εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν δῆμον: Acts xvii. 5 [LT Tr WH προαγ.]; xix. 30. [From Hom. down.]
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
δῆμος dēmos 4x
the people, Acts 12:22; 17:5; 19:30, 33*
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
δῆμος, -ου, ὁ
[in LXX chiefly for מִשְׁפָּחָה ;]
a district, country.
the common people, the people generally; esp. the people assembled: Ac 12:22 17:5 19:30, 33.†
SYN.: λαός, the people at large: δ., the people as a body politic; opp. to δ. is ὄχλος, the unorganized multitude. ἔθνος, in sing., means in NT as in Gk. writers generally, a nation, but in pl. denotes the rest of mankind apart from the Jews: Gentiles. λ. also, rare in cl. (Att... λεώς), is freq. in LXX and NT, and usually limited to the chosen people, Israel (cf. Cl. Rev., i, 42 f.; Cremer, 689).
Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT
δῆμος. E. L. Hicks, in CA’ i. p. 42, draws the moral of the disuse of δῆμος in days when Greek freedom was extinct: where it does occur in NT (Ac 127, 175, 193. 33) it suggests merely a rabble. Of course it occurs abundantly in Hellenistic inserr. which record how the people passed complimentary resolutions or voted statues, by way of insisting that their local assembly was still in being. [For a defence of
Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon
δῆμος (dēmos) — people. δῆμος, Doric dialect δᾶμος (compare infr. IV), ὁ, district, country, land, Βοιωτοὶ μάλα πίονα δ. ἔχοντες [Refs 8th c.BC+] the land of dreams, [Refs]
2. the people, inhabitants of such a district, πόληΐ τε παντί τε δήμῳ [Refs 8th c.BC+]
II. hence (since the common people lived in the country, the chiefs in the city), the commons, common people, δήμου ἀνήρ, opposed to βασιλεύς, ἔξοχος ἀνήρ, etc., [NT+8th c.BC+] being a commoner, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; opposed to οἱ εὐδαίμονες, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; opposed to οἱ παχέες, [Refs]; opposed to οἱ δυνατοί, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; = Latin plebs, [Refs 1st c.BC+]unus de plebe, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; in an army, rank and file, opposed to officers, ὁ δ. τῶν στρατιωτῶν [Refs 5th c.BC+]
II.2. metaphorically, δ. ἰχθύων [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ὀρνέων [Refs 4th c.AD+]
III. in a political sense, the sovereign people, the free citizens, [Refs 5th c.BC+]
III.2. popular government, democracy, opposed to ὀλιγαρχίη, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; opposed to οἱ τύραννοι, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; δήμου κατάλυσις [Refs 5th c.BC+]; δ. καταστῆσαι, καταπαύειν, [Refs 5th c.BC+]: in plural, democracies, [Refs 4th c.BC+]
III.3. the popular assembly, λέγειν ἐν τῷ δ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δ., formula in Inscrr., as [Refs]; of the assembly of Oxyrhynchus, [Refs 3rd c.AD+]
IV. township, commune (= Doric dialect κώμη accusative to [Refs 5th c.BC+], etc.:—Doric dialect δᾶμος, [Refs]: in indications of origin, Σωφάνης ἐκ δ. Δεκελεῆθεν [Refs 5th c.BC+]
V. name for a prostitute, [Refs 7th c.BC+]
VI. faction in the circus, [Refs 3rd c.AD+]
VII. ={κατανάγκη}, Ps.-[Refs 1st c.AD+]. (Perh. cognate with Sanskrit dā´ti 'reap', δαίομαι, δατέομαι.)