bourgeois

1 of 2

adjective

bour·​geois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä,
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
1
: of, relating to, or characteristic of the social middle class
2
: marked by a concern for material interests and respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity
3
: dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic
bourgeoisification noun
bourgeoisify verb

bourgeois

2 of 2

noun

bour·​geois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä,
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
plural bourgeois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä(z),
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä(z) How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
1
a
: a middle-class person
b
2
: a person with social behavior and political views held to be influenced by private-property interest : capitalist
3
plural : bourgeoisie

Examples of bourgeois in a Sentence

Adjective Indignation about the powers that be and the bourgeois fools who did their bidding—that was all you needed … You were an intellectual. Tom Wolfe, Harper's, June 2000
Even before the 19th century was over, successive waves of collection mania had rolled across Europe and America, submerging country homes and bourgeois town houses in ferns and faux-Grecian ruins … Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review, 7 Feb. 1999
Or is Sartre's existentialism to be understood as only a way station in his transit from a bourgeois intellectual to a Marxist ideologue? Walker Percy, "The State of the Novel," 1977, in Signposts in a Strange Land1991
… the United States … was the bourgeois nation par excellence, in which, it might be said, the values of trade were transmogrified into ideals of freedom. Robert Penn Warren, Democracy and Poetry, 1975
Noun For many, Nietzsche has always been a bugaboo, though some regard him as an heroic destroyer of idols, the invigorating voice of skepticism, and a revealer of those embarrassing actualities that the pieties and protestations of the bourgeois have customarily concealed. William H. Gass, Harper's, August 2005
With exceptions like Rousseau, the philosophes were elitists. They enlightened through noblesse oblige in company with noblemen, and often with a patronizing attitude toward the bourgeois as well as the common people. Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette, 1990
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Yet the photographs are of this bourgeois woman who’s well-dressed and who’s sitting with her knitting. Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Feb. 2024 His indifference to bourgeois society sometimes got him into trouble. Jordan Michael Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Feb. 2024 Their other two residences — a minimalist apartment in Concordia sulla Secchia, Italy, near the factory where Owens’s clothes are made, and an equally austere beach house on Venice’s Lido — are too bourgeois for Lamy. Nick Haramis Ola Rindal Dogukan Nesanir, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024 Interiors feature bourgeois comfort: pianos, wall-to-wall carpeting, fireplaces. Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 5 Jan. 2024 What is expected in the bourgeois family, in Modena, in 1957? John Semley, WIRED, 22 Dec. 2023 The museum’s archives provided valuable insight into the lives of Rudolph and Hedwig, who began as a working-class family aspiring to a bourgeois lifestyle. Armani Syed, TIME, 12 Jan. 2024 In their use of color, scale, handling, and composition, both approached themes of bourgeois recreation and domesticity behind doors in resolutely disruptive ways. Sam Needleman, The New York Review of Books, 6 Jan. 2024 And yet museums provide the one test that matters most, the test of the crowded room, and the most crowded remain the Impressionists’, marking, as Cyril Connolly once suggested, one of the last instances of a valid myth in Western art: the Impressionist myth of bourgeois pleasure. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
Noun
In the Art Deco dining room, tables are set with white linens and silver napkin rings, blending bistro and bourgeois for the TikTok era. Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Forbes, 15 Feb. 2024 Brief Boho Origins and History Bohemian style first emerged in the mid-1800s, which was often embraced by writers, artists, creatives, and intellectuals who defied bourgeois norms through clothing. Hilary Tetenbaum, USA TODAY, 2 Jan. 2024 When the bourgeois demonstrations turned abruptly into mass protests by the urban poor, the aging king lacked the strength of will to face the crisis. Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 26 Dec. 2023 What’s so attractive about examining the struggles of the proletariat, the vice of the bourgeois? Holly Jones, Variety, 26 Jan. 2024 Much art and music was banned by the Communist regime as bourgeois. Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Jan. 2024 Gotz, the daughter of a prosperous bourgeois family, would be murdered at Auschwitz. Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2023 The Omega Workshop sought to harness abstraction to inject vibrant visual energy into stuffy bourgeois respectability. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023 Manet is milder in his depictions of these new delights, but on some level both artists understand what’s going on: leisure can be anxious, disappointing, exhausting, and boring—sometimes for the bourgeois, sometimes for the working-class folks paid to keep them happy, sometimes for all concerned. Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bourgeois.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective and Noun

Middle French, from Old French burgeis townsman, from burc, borg town, from Latin burgus

First Known Use

Adjective

1761, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Time Traveler
The first known use of bourgeois was in 1604

Dictionary Entries Near bourgeois

bourgade

bourgeois

Bourgeois

Cite this Entry

“Bourgeois.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourgeois. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

bourgeois

1 of 2 adjective
bour·​geois ˈbu̇(ə)rzh-ˌwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
bu̇rzh-ˈwä
1
: of or relating to townspeople or members of the middle class
2
: marked by a concern for comfort, wealth, and what is respectable

bourgeois

2 of 2 noun
plural bourgeois
-ˌwä(z),
-ˈwä(z)
: a person of the middle class of society
Etymology

Noun

from early French bourgeois "a resident of a town," from earlier burgeis (same meaning), from burc "town," from Latin burgus "fortified place" — related to burgess

Biographical Definition

Bourgeois 1 of 2

biographical name (1)

Bour·​geois bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce Bourgeois (audio)
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä
Léon-Victor-Auguste 1851–1925 French statesman

Bourgeois

2 of 2

biographical name (2)

Louise 1911–2010 American (French-born) sculptor
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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