middle class

¹

[mid-l klas]

noun

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.

middle-class

²

[mid-l-klas, -klahs]

adjective

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

   middle-class taste; middle-class morality.

middle class

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

adjective

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

middle class

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.

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

• middle-classness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of middle class¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Origin of middle class²

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Thurmond said he would build two million housing units on surplus land on school sites around the state and provide a tax break for working and middle class Californians.

From Los Angeles Times

According to ratings agency Crisil, lower taxes will benefit a third of an average consumer's monthly expenditure basket and improve the middle class's purchasing power.

From BBC

But through a combination of open-source intelligence, undercover research, and information from a former member of his network, we traced him to a middle class neighbourhood in Dubai - Jumeirah Village Circle.

From BBC

The 1960s middle classes could not afford haute couture, but yearned for a stylish, distinctive look of their own.

From BBC

The author was born in Omaha to Haitian immigrant parents, though Gay stresses that her path “wasn’t particularly difficult in that I grew up middle class and then upper middle class.”

From Los Angeles Times