Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

ryot

American  
[rahy-uht] / ˈraɪ ət /

noun

  1. a peasant.

  2. a person who holds land as a cultivator of the soil.


ryot British  
/ ˈraɪət /

noun

  1. (in India) a peasant or tenant farmer

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ryot

1615–25; < Hindi raiyat < Persian < Arabic raʿīyah subjects, literally, flock

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A borrowed transmitter and some receiving sets lent by Marconi Co. in 1935 made possible the first experiment in taking radio to the ryot.

From Time Magazine Archive

Stuck with the job of making radio interest the ryot is India's Radio Chief Lionel Fielden.

From Time Magazine Archive

Instead of lecturing the ryot on the use of fertilizer, Delhi broadcasts a farce in which Dulari, the peasant, becomes a millionaire.

From Time Magazine Archive

By the roadside grew a field of millet, the sparse crop of some poor ryot in the village who cared little for kings or courts.

From The Great Mogul by Tracy, Louis

The children of Mercurie and of Venus Been in hir wirking ful contrarious; Mercurie loveth wisdom and science, And Venus loveth ryot and dispence.

From Astronomical Lore in Chaucer by Grimm, Florence M.