Meaning & use
poll tax
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A flat charge that each adult must pay no matter how much they earn or own.
Grammar: Can be a general idea or a specific tax: a poll tax, the poll tax.
Patterns
- pay a poll tax
- introduce a poll tax
Critics said a poll tax is unfair because a wealthy person pays the same as a poor one.
The government planned to replace local property rates with a poll tax.
Protests broke out across the country when the poll tax was announced.
nouncountable or uncountable
A fee that people had to pay before they were allowed to vote, a rule that kept many poor citizens from voting.
Grammar: Historical sense, usually discussed in the context of American civil rights.
Patterns
- a poll tax on voters
In several southern states a poll tax stopped many poor families from voting.
Textbooks describe how the poll tax was used to limit the vote.
The amendment banned the poll tax in federal elections.
Word forms
| plural | poll taxes |
|---|
Common combinations
- introduce a poll tax
- The council voted to introduce a poll tax the following year.
- abolish the poll tax
- Campaigners demanded that ministers abolish the poll tax.
- poll tax riots
- The poll tax riots of 1990 shocked the capital.
- pay the poll tax
- Many residents refused to pay the poll tax.
- ban on poll taxes
- A ban on poll taxes in elections opened the ballot to more people.
Synonyms and how they differ
- head tax
- Head tax is nearly identical in meaning but sounds more American and is also used for charges on immigrants.
- capitation
- Capitation is the formal, technical word for a tax per person and is rare in everyday speech.
- community charge
- Community charge was the official British name for the 1990 poll tax, while poll tax was what people called it.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: poll tax or polling tax?
poll tax vs polling tax
This is not the normal term; the correct phrase is poll tax, where poll originally meant a head or person.
Practice
A poll tax is best described as a tax that ____.
Choose one answer.
A poll tax is a fixed amount per person. The income-based option describes a progressive income tax, which is the opposite idea.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “poll tax”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.