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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

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

• middle-classness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of middle class¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Origin of middle-class²

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Saurabh Mukherjea and Nandita Rajhansa are the authors of "Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work".

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026

Appeared in the January 12, 2026, print edition as 'About That ‘Disappearing’ Middle Class'.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026

To further complicate matters, a report issued by the Department of Commerce in 2010 for then-Vice President Joe Biden's "Middle Class Taskforce," defined the middle class by its collective "aspirations" above all else:

From Salon • Nov. 2, 2024

To ease the pain caused by high gasoline prices, the state of California has been sending a Middle Class Tax Refund of $200 to $1,050 to eligible households.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2023

The CDO was, in effect, a credit laundering service for the residents of Lower Middle Class America.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis