third estate

American  

noun

1. the third of the three estates or political orders: the commons in France or England.

---

third estate British  

noun

1. the third order or class in a country or society divided into estates, esp for representation in a parliament; the commons, townsmen, or middle class

---

Etymology

Origin of third estate

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

third estate

And now the fencing has come to the Supreme Court, to the third estate.

From Washington Post ● May 10, 2022

The term had a special resonance with his Francophone audience because it recalled the third estate, “tiers-état,” of the French Revolution.

From Time ● Aug. 26, 2015

And in this they lagged behind their contemporary theorists of the bourgeoisie, who understood very well the historical significance at any rate of the struggle of the third estate against the nobles.

From Anarchism and Socialism by Plekhanov, Georgii Valentinovich

It had long been said that the third estate paid with its property, the nobility with its blood, the clergy with its prayers.

From Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 by Walton, William

The third estate voted itself a "national assembly," and, after a struggle of six weeks, gained its point, and the estates were constituted as a single assembly.

From The Political History of England - Vol. X. The History of England from the Accession of George III to the close of Pitt's first Administration by Poole, Reginald Lane