middle class
1 Americannoun
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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.
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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.
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any intermediate class.
adjective
noun
adjective
Discover More
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
- middle-classness noun
Etymology
Origin of middle class1
First recorded in 1760–70
Origin of middle-class2
First recorded in 1890–95
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tom Stacey, senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, who works in supply chain and manufacturing research, said the company was operating within an "upper middle class squeeze".
From BBC
Labour drew working-class voters, and the Tories scooped up the aspirational middle class and the wealthy.
Whether Leah truly believed or whether she kept up a false story to propel herself into the comfortable middle class cannot be known.
From Literature
The Luddite movement, which predated the Swing Riots, was led by textile workers convinced that power-operated looms would permanently impoverish the middle class.
From Barron's
This has brought in migrant workers from other regions, and also created an urban middle class which is more responsive to the reformist ideas of the progressive movement.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
