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• middle class
  middle class

  noun

  the social, economic, and cultural class of people thought of as having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.
• middle-class
  middle-class

  adjective

  of, relating to, or characteristic of the middle class; bourgeois.

middle class

¹ American  

[mid-l klas] / ˈmɪd l ˈklæs /

noun

• middle classes
  plural

1. the social, economic, and cultural class of people thought of as having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.

   Life for the middle class includes going to college, getting a job, getting married, buying a house, and raising kids.

   We intend to put an end to the tax squeeze on the middle class.

2. Sociology. Sometimes middle classes the socioeconomic stratum intermediate between the upper or aristocratic class and the laboring class, made up mostly of business people, professionals, civil servants, and skilled workers, and sometimes further subdivided into the upper middle class and the lower middle class.

   In the 1950s and 1960s in America, an emphasis on education increased upward mobility, and the middle class expanded.

   Self-improvement, a strong work ethic, and modesty were among the core moral values of the German middle classes of the early 20th century.

3. any intermediate class.

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middle-class ² American  

[mid-l-klas, -klahs] / ˈmɪd lˈklæs, -ˈklɑs /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the middle class; bourgeois.

   middle-class taste; middle-class morality.

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middle class British  

noun

1. Also called: bourgeoisie. a social stratum that is not clearly defined but is positioned between the lower and upper classes. It consists of businessmen, professional people, etc, along with their families, and is marked by bourgeois values Compare lower class upper class working class

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the middle class

middle class Cultural  

1. A social and economic class composed of those more prosperous than the poor, or lower class, and less wealthy than the upper class. Middle class is sometimes loosely used to refer to the bourgeoisie. In the United States and other industrial countries, the term is often applied to white-collar, as opposed to blue-collar, workers.

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Values commonly associated with the middle class include a desire for social respectability and material wealth and an emphasis on the family and education.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• middle-classness
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• middle classes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of middle class¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Origin of middle-class²

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

middle class middle-class

But the middle class is suffering now, too, in all those areas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

And especially being the head of the Teamsters, a great organization which brought so many people into the middle class.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

The benchmarks for the contemporary understanding of the American middle class evolved in the 20th century, said Sam Pizzigati, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026

A growing middle class and urbanization are creating attractive opportunities for investors to seek a share of the region’s most promising hospital and specialty-care assets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

He knew nothing of that silent middle class that struggled between genteel poverty and the impossible desire of emulating the golden canaille to which he himself belonged.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

One NOS member put it more bluntly in a TV documentary five years later: "We were sticking two fingers up to normal, middle-class church ways of behaviour."

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

Born in Yakima, Wash., MacLachlan grew up the oldest of three boys; his parents were solidly middle-class, with his father working as a lawyer, and then stockbroker.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

An analysis by the Brookings Institution estimates 45% of all Americans, including one-third of middle-class families, can’t afford basic necessities.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

Inheriting a “low-price gene” from poverty, as Hongfu said in a document that detailed the company’s history, they ignored the middle-class customers whom Starbucks and Chinese brands chased in Shanghai.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

“Real potatoes are backward for him. Remember this is our newly middle-class world. We haven’t completed the first cycle of prosperity, before going back to the beginning again, to drink milk from the cow’s udder.”

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie