upward mobility

noun

: the capacity or facility for rising to a higher social or economic position

upwardly mobile adjective

Examples of upward mobility in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

From showcasing the upward mobility to navigating systemic barriers, this panel will explore the power of storytelling to reshape how Black opulence is seen, celebrated, and understood on screen today. —Demicia Inman, VIBE.com, 22 May 2025

This modern relationship with product branding mimics 1960s and 1970s trends, when postwar prosperity allowed middle-class families to buy into symbols of upward mobility—station wagons, Tupperware, televisions. —Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 May 2025

Second-wave feminism, the drive for upward mobility, career opportunities and the desire for smaller families prompted many Catholic households to ignore the papal directive on birth control. —Randall Balmer, Time, 8 May 2025

Sinners is almost two movies in one: a vampire slaughterhouse film that’s also a period piece about the near-impossibility of upward mobility in the segregation economy. —Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 2 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1949, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for upward mobility

• acceptability
• accessibility
• adaptability
• admissibility
• advisability
• affordability
• allowability
• amenability
• amiability
• appealability
• applicability
• availability