folk hero

noun

: a person who is greatly admired by many people of a particular kind or in a particular place
He has become a folk hero in his home state because of the work he has done to help poor children.

Examples of folk hero in a Sentence

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The 26-year-old has become something of a folk hero for a segment of progressives who see him as taking action against an industry long hated by large swathes of the population. Dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2025 Its journey has turned the fish into an unlikely folk hero. German Lopez, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025 When Luigi Mangione was arrested in the killing of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, he was hailed in some corners of the internet as an anti-capitalist folk hero. Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 14 Dec. 2024 Why had the internet anointed Mangione a folk hero? Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for folk hero

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“Folk hero.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/folk%20hero. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.

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