working class

¹ American  

noun

1. those persons working for wages, especially in manual labor.

2. the social or economic class composed of these workers.

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working-class ² American  

[wur-king-klas] / ˈwɜr kɪŋˌklæs /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the working class, the class of wage earners or manual laborers.

   He came from a working-class neighborhood in Nova Scotia, where his mother took in laundry and his father had a job in the coal mine.

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working class British  

noun

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

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the working class

working class Cultural  

1. 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.

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Other Word Forms

• working-class adjective

Etymology

Origin of working class¹

First recorded in 1805–15

Origin of working-class²

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

"I've got the most working class cabinet in the history of this country," he said.

From BBC

"We believe it is not so much the quantity of working class representation which is the issue but the way working-class communities are portrayed and understood that needs further consideration."

From BBC

Despite the yawning hole, Mamdani said he plans to present a balanced preliminary budget by pursuing savings and looking for inefficiencies without cutting any programs that benefit the working class.

From The Wall Street Journal

British newspapers have rushed to offer support, invoking George Orwell’s descriptions of pubs as a haven for the working class and a sacral space for free thinkers.

From The Wall Street Journal

“We must balance making sure we keep the Silicon Valley miracle and dynamism with ensuring that the working class benefit from the prosperity with healthcare, education, and childcare,” Khanna told me in a recent statement.

From The Wall Street Journal