bourgeois

adjective

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

2

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

3

: dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic

Inflation was interdicted … because it destroyed sound bourgeois finance …

—Nicholas Fraser

bourgeoisification

ˌbu̇(r)zh-ˌwä-zə-fə-ˈkā-shən 

noun

bourgeoisify

bu̇(r)zh-ˈwä-zə-ˌfī 

verb

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History of Bourgeois

Bourgeois is often mistakenly used to refer to people of considerable wealth or status, possibly because the French pronunciation causes us to associate it with opulence, yet the word is of decidedly middle-class origins (and meaning). It first appeared as a noun signifying “an inhabitant of a town” in the 1564 work A Discourse Wrytten by M. Theodore de Beza: “the Lordes of Strasbourgh consented, vpo condition that he should be alwayes a Bourgeois of their towne.” Because many town-dwellers made their living in business and commerce, bourgeois became synonymous with the social class of such people, namely, the middle class. During the nineteenth century, in Marxist writings, the word became associated with capitalism and took on a negative connotation. Bourgeois may function as either a noun or an adjective. In modern parlance, it has come to suggest overmuch concern with respectability and wealth.

Examples of bourgeois in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Their attempts to destroy the bourgeois family were, like the efforts of Suzanna’s mother and grandmother, ambivalent and half-hearted. —Julius Taranto, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026

And their struggle, within their world, to lead a good life, to lead a life that has meaning—their struggle between whether to pursue romantic adventure or a staid, bourgeois life—felt very real to me, at age twenty-five. —Literary Hub, 26 May 2026

Traditionally, the bourgeois novel questioned the viability of bourgeois life, not the viability of life itself. —James Wood, New Yorker, 4 May 2026

Ana Dumitrescu stars as a young Romanian woman who moves to France to work for a bourgeois family and joins an amateur theater troupe adapting Mirbeau’s novel for the stage. —Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 18 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

1761, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing bourgeois

• anti-bourgeois
• petit bourgeois
• petty bourgeois

Rhymes for bourgeois

• allantois
• baccarat
• chickasaw
• mackinaw
• overawe
• oversaw
• quebecois
• yojana
• aa
• aha
• bashaw
• bradshaw

Kids 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

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