downward mobility

British

noun

sociol the movement of an individual, social group, or class to a lower status Compare upward mobility See also horizontal mobility vertical mobility

"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

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.

"There's not only no upward mobility to start with, but even downward mobility ends with death."

From BBC • Jul. 8, 2025

Opting out is an increasingly popular way for younger workers to cope with a time of downward mobility, said Beverly Yuen Thompson, a sociology professor at Siena College in Albany, New York.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 27, 2023

Instead, they have suffered the grind of a country grappling with impossible debts and downward mobility.

From New York Times • May 17, 2022

Each of the essays is about some form of downward mobility, emotional or financial.

From Salon • May 6, 2022

Thomas has composed a comedy of downward mobility that astutely wraps multiple disappointments in sitcom bonhomie.

From Washington Post • Mar. 25, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023