as in poor
belonging to the class of people of middle social or economic rank
She grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, as did most of her classmates.
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as in working class
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of middle class
Tom Daykin, jsonline.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Many landed along West and Wilkinson boulevards, once white and middle class areas that Hanchett said would become almost entirely Black and low-income by the ‘70s.
—Charlotte Observer, 22 Sep. 2025
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2025
Not only are low-income families having a hard time keeping up with rising rents, but also those with a traditionally middle-class income are having difficulty matching rising rents in some cities.
—Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for middle class
Adjective
How about city financing help for new homes, or home improvements, in Milwaukee's middle class neighborhoods?
—Tom Daykin, jsonline.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Many landed along West and Wilkinson boulevards, once white and middle class areas that Hanchett said would become almost entirely Black and low-income by the ‘70s.
—Charlotte Observer, 22 Sep. 2025
Noun
The new film tries to connect its phantasmagorical elements to regular middle-class lives, but the attempt serves both aspects poorly.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2025
Not only are low-income families having a hard time keeping up with rising rents, but also those with a traditionally middle-class income are having difficulty matching rising rents in some cities.
—Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for middle class
Recent Examples of Synonyms for middle class
Adjective
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There are 577 bridges in Milwaukee, and only 5% are considered to be in poor condition, according to a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report.—
Anna Kleiber,
jsonline.com,
25 Sep. 2025
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Last week, as financial panic escalated following Milei’s party’s poor showing in local elections, Argentina’s central bank spent more than $1 billion of its foreign currency reserves to keep the peso from collapsing.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
25 Sep. 2025
Noun
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About Marcus King Marcus King grew up in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a working class family with deep roots in music.—
Sid Evans,
Southern Living,
23 Sep. 2025
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Burney grew up working class in Baltimore, endured his father’s fits of rage, pulled shifts at soul-crushing jobs to support his daughter, and lost sight in one eye from injuries in a car accident.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The film’s portrayal of Kafka as a misunderstood genius stymied by bourgeois capitalist priorities is sympathetic but hardly radical, while its engagement with his actual work is limited, give or take some canny quotation in Marek Epstein’s script.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
20 Sep. 2025
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Isabella Cosse writes that Quino was attacked both by the left (for being too bourgeois to offer a real critique of the political repression) and by the right (for being too friendly to subversive groups).—
Daniel Alarcón,
New Yorker,
30 June 2025
Noun
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This kind of soft satire also puts me in mind of Dorothy West, who excellently sent up a nascent Black bourgeoisie in novels like The Wedding.—
Brittany Allen
July 10,
Literary Hub,
10 July 2025
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Its leaders sanctioned the mass appropriation of lands from the nobility and their distribution to smaller farmers and the urban bourgeoisie.—
Michael Albertus,
Foreign Affairs,
24 June 2025
Adjective
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Don’t pull over in the roundabout Roundabouts with a single lane of traffic in each direction are fairly simple – yield to traffic in the roundabout, wait for a gap in traffic and go through, Bryson said.—
Eric D. Lawrence,
USA Today,
28 Sep. 2025
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This can be as simple as bodyweight movements, resistance bands or dumbbells, focusing on compound/functional movements like squats, pushes and pulls.—
Melissa Rudy,
FOXNews.com,
27 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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For a working-class man in the 1950s, seeking psychiatric care meant defying social mores.—
Eric Cortellessa,
Time,
25 Sep. 2025
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Sunny, for example, feels solidarity with his working-class immigrant neighbors in Queens while repressing the fact that his family funded his education with black money.—
Sanjena Sathian,
Vulture,
23 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Middle class.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/middle%20class. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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