popularity

popular +‎ -ity, from Latin popularitas (“an effort to please the people”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɒp.jəˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/

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popularity (usually uncountable, plural popularities)

1. The quality or state of being popular; especially, the state of being esteemed by, or of being in favor with, the people at large

   This destination has increased in popularity after great reviews in the guide books.

   Politicians are rarely known for their popularity.

   The massive popularity of the book led to it being adapted into a movie.

2. (archaic) The quality or state of being adapted or pleasing to common, poor, or vulgar people
   • 1600, Ben Jonson, Every Man Out of His Humour

     So this Gallant, labouring to avoid Popularity, falls into a habit of Affectation, Ten thousand times hatefuller than the former.

   1. (by extension) cheapness; inferiority; vulgarity.
3. (archaic) Something which obtains, or is intended to obtain, the favor of the vulgar; claptrap.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, The Colours or Good and Evil

     Popularities, and circumstances which […] sway the ordinary judgment.

4. (obsolete) The act of courting the favour of the people.
   • 1603, Philemon Holland, translator, Moralia, by Plutarch

     Cato (the younger) charged Muraena, and indicted him in open court for popularity and ambition.

5. (archaic) Public sentiment; general passion.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     A little time be allowed for the madness of popularity to cease.

• popularity contest

• popularity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• popularity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911