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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

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Etymology

Origin of middle class¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Origin of middle-class²

First recorded in 1890–95

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

middle class middle-class

And while a growing middle class does exist, they might not have much time for leisure.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

While Western tourists had begun to come to Shangri-La decades earlier, the domestic tourist boom began after Covid-19-era lockdowns left China’s growing middle class grappling for a sense of escape and meaning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

The country's rapidly growing middle class had plenty of money and a seemingly insatiable appetite for cars, including the most profitable upmarket models.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Over the next three decades, soaring demand for the fruit transformed Michoacán state into the center of global avocado production — and catapulted a generation of people like Pancho from poverty into the middle class.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

It was not coincidence that the leadership of the southern civil rights movement was drawn mainly from a well-educated black middle class.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

Today, however, that encompasses solidly middle-class, even working-class, households, not the $500,000+ cadre.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

Born William Joseph Gabriel Doyle in 1873, the future priest had a comfortable, middle-class childhood in the affluent Dublin suburb of Dalkey.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

In a middle-class neighborhood, altars, crucifixes, and images of the Pope adorn the home of Joaquin Kawakami Effio, a 15-year-old who is considering the priesthood.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

He told MarketWatch that he wanted to focus on boosting middle-class homeownership.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

Then he gazed at the people gathered around him: liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites, men and women, middle-class and poor.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

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