middle classnoun [ S, + sing/pl verb ]
uk/ˌmɪd.əl ˈklɑːs/us/ˌmɪd.əl ˈklæs/also the middle classesa social group that consists of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, who have good jobs and are neither very rich nor very poor:
The upper middle class tend to go into business or the professions, becoming, for example, lawyers, doctors, or accountants.
Compare
lower class
upper class
working class noun
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Class & class-consciousness in general
- arriviste
- bougie
- bourgeois
- class struggle
- class-conscious
- high society
- Hooray Henry
- inverted snob
- lower class
- lowest common denominator
- prole
- proletarian
- riff-raff
- Sloane Ranger
- snob
- underclass
- untouchable
- upper class
- upwardly mobile
- well bred
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middle-class
adjective uk/ˌmɪd.l̩ˈklɑːs/us/-ˈklæs/
Examples
- We drove from middle-class suburbs to a very poor inner-city area.
- He has written a book about middle-class suburbia.
- They expressed worry about the district's current budget crisis and its vanishing middle-class work force.
- Middle-class children have more advantages.
- Squash is a middle-class sport.
a middle-class suburb of New York