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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

Many are keenly aware of the pivotal role that home ownership played in building the financial well-being of their parents and the American middle class.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

The stakes are especially high in India, where a government job offers a steady salary, social status and a route into the middle class.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

De la Espriella appealed not just to anti-left voters, but to a burgeoning middle class frustrated by growing crime -- a leading issue for voters in every recent Latin American election.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

That means fewer prospective buyers are accessing homeownership, which has historically been a key wealth-building tool for America’s middle class.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026

Will Wilson fits squarely in the city’s middle class.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Most of the wealth that middle-class American families hold stems from residential property values.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026

The risk for investors is that the company has to wait a long time for middle-class incomes to catch up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

Really, he’s just a middle-class kid from New Jersey who doesn’t expect to work for a living.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

Unlike most laws with similar names, it did contain at least one provision that gave real relief to taxpayers: the Roth IRA, a new way for middle-class Americans to accumulate tax-free savings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

It was 96 percent black, but it wasn’t in the inner city, and most of its students did not come from deprived backgrounds but from middle-class ones.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger