work·ing-class
ˈwər-kiŋ-ˈklas 
: of, relating to, deriving from, or suitable to the class of wage earners
working-class virtues
a working-class family
: the class of people who work for wages usually at manual labor
Examples of working-class in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Joey Garrison, USA TODAY, 20 Apr. 2024
Today, Sunland Park remains a working-class community where 84 percent speak Spanish at home, with more than double the national poverty and uninsured rates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
—Silvia Foster-Frau, Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2024
Martinez, 36, co-director of the Labor Community Strategy Center, a think tank and advocacy organization for working-class families, rode roughly seven miles to El Camino College in Torrance from his home near Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.
—Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2024
Despite relative gains—especially in the working-class fields as bolstered by union success—the true middle class has wavered in an age of high inequality.
—Bychloe Berger, Fortune, 12 Apr. 2024
In working-class Osceola County, 64-year-old ice cream server Teri Dudley recently found herself in the center of her community’s battle to protect its legacy.
—Archer Guanco, Daniel Schoenherr, Detroit Free Press, 11 Apr. 2024
People who attended Purdue were seen as more working-class than those attending liberal arts colleges at the time, the university says.
—NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Image Gallagher was born in Providence, R. I., in 1965 to a working-class family.
—Kadish Morris, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
In the working-class neighborhood of East Palo Alto, before Silicon Valley’s rise, my grandparents epitomized an era when jobs offered long-term security.
—Ebony Flake, Essence, 8 Apr. 2024
Matt Brown, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024
Key Food is a $4.5 billion cooperative that owns over 17% of NYC market share, with dozens of stores in diverse, working class neighborhoods across the 5 boroughs.
—Errol Schweizer, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
Manufacturing-robbing fiscal deficits don’t support the working class.
—Douglas Carr, National Review, 7 Feb. 2024
The emerging dominance of those with college degrees has changed the mix of social attitudes in what was once the blue-collar party, leading candidates who want to win primaries to take policy positions more popular on campus than among the rural or urban working class.
—Ron Elving, NPR, 23 Mar. 2024
Throughout his time in power, Thaksin was hugely popular with Thailand’s rural and working class but his policies were anathema to the rich elites and conservatives who accused him of being a dangerous and corrupt populist.
—Kocha Olarn, CNN, 17 Feb. 2024
The state also became increasingly hard to afford, creating a wider gap between the new class of Silicon Valley tech barons and the huge, largely Black and Latino working class.
—Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024
Great industrial innovations of the past sometimes threatened the jobs of America’s working class: Remember those stories about robots replacing workers on the assembly line?
—USA TODAY, 7 Mar. 2024
In France, as in many Western democracies today, the working class is now in large part nonwhite.
—Elisabeth Zerofsky, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Adjective
Ahead of the November election, Biden is looking to improve Democratic performance with white working-class voters who lack college degrees, who have increasingly moved to the Republican camp in the Trump era.
—Joey Garrison, USA TODAY, 20 Apr. 2024
Today, Sunland Park remains a working-class community where 84 percent speak Spanish at home, with more than double the national poverty and uninsured rates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
—Silvia Foster-Frau, Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2024
Martinez, 36, co-director of the Labor Community Strategy Center, a think tank and advocacy organization for working-class families, rode roughly seven miles to El Camino College in Torrance from his home near Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.
—Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2024
Despite relative gains—especially in the working-class fields as bolstered by union success—the true middle class has wavered in an age of high inequality.
—Bychloe Berger, Fortune, 12 Apr. 2024
In working-class Osceola County, 64-year-old ice cream server Teri Dudley recently found herself in the center of her community’s battle to protect its legacy.
—Archer Guanco, Daniel Schoenherr, Detroit Free Press, 11 Apr. 2024
People who attended Purdue were seen as more working-class than those attending liberal arts colleges at the time, the university says.
—NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Image Gallagher was born in Providence, R. I., in 1965 to a working-class family.
—Kadish Morris, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
In the working-class neighborhood of East Palo Alto, before Silicon Valley’s rise, my grandparents epitomized an era when jobs offered long-term security.
—Ebony Flake, Essence, 8 Apr. 2024
Noun
Labor and immigrant rights organizers have worked for years to tamp down divisions between working class communities.
—Matt Brown, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024
Key Food is a $4.5 billion cooperative that owns over 17% of NYC market share, with dozens of stores in diverse, working class neighborhoods across the 5 boroughs.
—Errol Schweizer, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024
Manufacturing-robbing fiscal deficits don’t support the working class.
—Douglas Carr, National Review, 7 Feb. 2024
The emerging dominance of those with college degrees has changed the mix of social attitudes in what was once the blue-collar party, leading candidates who want to win primaries to take policy positions more popular on campus than among the rural or urban working class.
—Ron Elving, NPR, 23 Mar. 2024
Throughout his time in power, Thaksin was hugely popular with Thailand’s rural and working class but his policies were anathema to the rich elites and conservatives who accused him of being a dangerous and corrupt populist.
—Kocha Olarn, CNN, 17 Feb. 2024
The state also became increasingly hard to afford, creating a wider gap between the new class of Silicon Valley tech barons and the huge, largely Black and Latino working class.
—Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024
Great industrial innovations of the past sometimes threatened the jobs of America’s working class: Remember those stories about robots replacing workers on the assembly line?
—USA TODAY, 7 Mar. 2024
In France, as in many Western democracies today, the working class is now in large part nonwhite.
—Elisabeth Zerofsky, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'working-class.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near working-class
Cite this Entry
“Working-class.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/working-class. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.
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