bourgeois

1 of 2

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

bourgeois

2 of 2

noun

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

3

plural : bourgeoisie

… the slapstick melee pitting thick-necked proles against top-hatted, umbrella-wielding bourgeois …

—Michael Lind

… opened clothing boutiques in both cities marketed towards the Black bourgeois and their desire for custom clothing.

—Iris Haastrup

Did you know?

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

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Both of his arms are in the sleeves, and his bourgeois father is kneeling on the floor, taking the shirt in order to conserve it, perhaps saving it from being soiled. —Theo Belci, Artforum, 27 Feb. 2026

In a more simplistic story, Derya and Aziz’s efforts to find a good private school for their daughter would come off as a hopeless bourgeois indulgence. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026

Noun

Perhaps inspired not only by Kierkegaard but also by the fiction of the postwar existentialists often understood to have been influenced by him, Hjorth has taken up the prototypical Norwegian bourgeois subject and her moral and political awakening, or failure thereof. —Elaine Blair, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026

Jim Dickinson stepped in to produce and play a little piano, but Travis deemed the results too polished, too polite, too bourgeois. —Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork, 8 Feb. 2026

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

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

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 

Léon-Victor-Auguste 1851–1925 French statesman

Bourgeois

2 of 2

biographical name (2)

Louise 1911–2010 American (French-born) sculptor