middle-class

[mid-l-klas, -klahs]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR middle-class ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of, relating to, or characteristic of the middle class; bourgeois: middle-class taste; middle-class morality.

RELATED WORDS

bourgeois, ordinary

Nearby words

Origin of middle-class

First recorded in 1890–95

Related formsmid·dle-class·ness, noun

middle class

noun

a class of people intermediate between the classes of higher and lower social rank or standing; the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.

the class traditionally intermediate between the aristocratic class and the laboring class.

an intermediate class.

Origin of middle class

First recorded in 1760–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for middle-class

The Affordable Care Act was always a short-term political loser with respect to middle-class voters.
Staving Off a Democratic Civil War|Michael Tomasky|December 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For us, the police embrace nothing if not working- and middle-class values and morality.
Prosecutor Used Grand Jury to Let Darren Wilson Walk|Tom Nolan|November 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Middle-class Congolese like himself, called “évolué,” or “evolved,” were hunted down for having ties with the Europeans.
‘Argo’ in the Congo: The Ghosts of the Stanleyville Hostage Crisis|Nina Strochlic|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Wages are stagnant and middle-class household incomes continue to decline.
Voters Remind D.C. That the Economy Still Sucks|Stuart Stevens|November 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Again: what of the middle-class divorced woman who does not have children because she cannot?
What’s the Catholic Church’s Problem With Couples Without Children?|Candida Moss, Joel Baden|October 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They had abandoned the dull habits of the middle class and yet were the slaves of middle-class ideas.
Old Mole|Gilbert Cannan
The American farmer has been essentially a middle-class man.
Chapters in Rural Progress|Kenyon L. Butterfield
If the Brownings were of mixed origin, they were so much the more like the great majority of English middle-class people.
Robert Browning|G. K. Chesterton
Rome could not be fitted into an orderly, middle-class, Bostonian, systematic scheme of evolution.
The Education of Henry Adams|Henry Adams
If his heart be selfish and mean, he will be dishonest as a poor man, as a middle-class man, as a great lord.
Town and Country Sermons|Charles Kingsley

British Dictionary definitions for middle-class

middle class

noun

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 valuesCompare lower class, upper class, working class

adjective middle-class

of, relating to, or characteristic of the middle class

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

Word Origin and History for middle-class

middle class

1766; as an adjective, "characteristic of the middle class" (depreciative) it dates from 1893.

Culture definitions for middle-class

middle class

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.

Note

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

middle-class

adjective

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of middle-class

middle class

noun

Origin of middle class

Examples from the Web for middle-class

middle class

noun

adjective middle-class

middle class

middle class

Note