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definitions

working class

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR working class ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

those persons working for wages, especially in manual labor.
the social or economic class composed of these workers.

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RELATED WORDS

proletariat, proles, workfolk, workpeople

Nearby words

  1. workhouse,
  2. working,
  3. working asset,
  4. working bee,
  5. working capital,
  6. working day,
  7. working dog,
  8. working drawing,
  9. working families tax credit,
  10. working fluid

Origin of working class

First recorded in 1805–15
Related formswork·ing-class, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for working class

British Dictionary definitions for working class

working class

noun

Also called: proletariat the social stratum, usually of low status, that consists of those who earn wages, esp as manual workersCompare lower class, middle class, upper class

adjective working-class

of, relating to, or characteristic of the working 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

Culture definitions for working class

working class

In the United States, the population of blue-collar workers, particularly skilled and semiskilled laborers, who differ in values, but not necessarily in income, from the middle class. In Marxism, this term refers to propertyless factory workers.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.