bour·geois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä 
also ˈbu̇zh-,
or ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä
1
: of, relating to, or characteristic of the social middle class
Differences in class background—the first two [characters] are bourgeois, the others working-class—vanish …—
Alex Ross
Alex Ross2
usually disparaging
: marked by a middle-class concern for material possessions, wealth, and respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity
… pearls are shedding their bourgeois connotations …—Jessica Scemama
Jessica Scemama3
: dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic
Inflation was interdicted … because it destroyed sound bourgeois finance …—Nicholas Fraser
Nicholas Fraser
bour·geois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä
also ˈbu̇zh-,
or ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä
plural bourgeois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä(z),
also ˈbu̇zh-,
or ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä(z)
1
a
: a middle-class person
b
: burgher
2
: a person with social behavior and political views held to be influenced by private-property interest : capitalist
In good times and bad, he carried himself like some petty bourgeois …—Eugene D. Genovese
Eugene D. Genovese3
plural
: bourgeoisie
… the slapstick melee pitting thick-necked proles against top-hatted, umbrella-wielding bourgeois …—Michael Lind
Michael Lind… opened clothing boutiques in both cities marketed towards the Black bourgeois and their desire for custom clothing.—Iris Haastrup
Iris HaastrupExamples 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 Land, 1991
… 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
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 Land, 1991
… 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
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
By then, the preeminent fashion genius of the third quarter of the 20th century and the designer so often credited with inventing the modern woman’s wardrobe had handed prêt-à-porter over to his assistants, who clung as if by commandment to the house dogma of bourgeois Parisian elegance.
—Rob Haskell, Vogue, 20 Oct. 2025
Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
But part of Kafka’s drive is something altogether less tangible; art was soon to enter its avant-garde phase in the early 20th century, and the writer turns out to be much more bohemian than his bourgeois upbringing suggests, showing a keen interest in underground Yiddish theater.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bourgeois
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Adjective
Cultured, cosmopolitan, generally liberal, the Dohnányis and the Bonhoeffers represented the best of the German-speaking bourgeois tradition.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
By then, the preeminent fashion genius of the third quarter of the 20th century and the designer so often credited with inventing the modern woman’s wardrobe had handed prêt-à-porter over to his assistants, who clung as if by commandment to the house dogma of bourgeois Parisian elegance.
—Rob Haskell, Vogue, 20 Oct. 2025
Noun
Sometimes, Wyeth’s work was described as bourgeois, betraying a desire for black ease and affluence, trading in a corrosive and politically dubious desire to see black people rich or at the very least in luxurious settings.
—Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
But part of Kafka’s drive is something altogether less tangible; art was soon to enter its avant-garde phase in the early 20th century, and the writer turns out to be much more bohemian than his bourgeois upbringing suggests, showing a keen interest in underground Yiddish theater.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bourgeois
Cite this Entry
“Bourgeois.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourgeois. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bourgeois
1 of 2 adjective
bour·geois
ˈbu̇(ə)rzh-ˌwä
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
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä
Léon-Victor-Auguste 1851–1925 French statesman
Bourgeois
2 of 2biographical name (2)
Louise 1911–2010 American (French-born) sculptor
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