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.
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
as in working class
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of middle-class
Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2026
Her 1971 video Facing a Family showed a middle-class family eating supper.
—News Desk, Artforum, 15 May 2026
ABC News, 13 May 2026
Today, housing is unaffordable to many in the middle class as well.
—Michael Schill, Chicago Tribune, 13 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for middle-class
Adjective
Tackling a subject close to home for writer-director Marie Kreutzer, Gentle Monster examines the fallout when Philip Weiss (Laurence Rupp) — a middle-class Austrian documentary maker, father and beloved husband — is accused of watching, distributing and maybe even making child pornography.
—Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2026
Her 1971 video Facing a Family showed a middle-class family eating supper.
—News Desk, Artforum, 15 May 2026
Noun
But in Iran, the war has marked another step in the ruin of a once large and prosperous middle class following decades of sanctions.
—ABC News, 13 May 2026
Today, housing is unaffordable to many in the middle class as well.
—Michael Schill, Chicago Tribune, 13 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for middle-class
Recent Examples of Synonyms for middle-class
Adjective
-
After wildfires hit Georgia in April 2026 fueled by a rain deficit, high winds and low humidity, — among other causes, per NASA — neighboring states got slammed with poor air quality alerts.—
Ryan Brennan
May 19,
Kansas City Star,
19 May 2026
-
However his attitude on health care and taxes places Newsom at odds with advocates for poor Californians who would be affected and their allies in the Legislature, many of whom want a tax increase.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
19 May 2026
Noun
-
The third season, Devil In Silver, is based on the book by Victor LaValle, about a working class man mistakenly committed to a psychiatric hospital where things get very, very dark.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
15 May 2026
-
In San Isidro, a movement was born Castillo and Otero grew up in San Isidro, a working class, hardscrabble neighborhood abutting the wharfs near the Port of Havana, and became friends – one a rapper, the other a visual artist.—
Rick Jervis,
USA Today,
13 May 2026
Adjective
-
Traditionally, the bourgeois novel questioned the viability of bourgeois life, not the viability of life itself.—
James Wood,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
Perhaps Fogel, a fervent leftist, chafed at having to celebrate the family, that bourgeois institution.—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The book told of Miss Peterson’s search for her own ancestry and detailed her discovery of the prosperous, Black bourgeoisie, based largely in Brooklyn, that had played a principal role in the New York of the late nineteenth century.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
12 May 2026
-
The economic cost of the war is now palpable – with cell-phone data outages that regularly blight major cities angering even the pro-Putin bourgeoisie – adding to a sense of the war beginning to hit the urban elite, who until now were mostly isolated from the invasion’s impact.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
4 May 2026
Adjective
-
While the simple Deluxe Room is ideal for a quick overnight trip, guests looking for a longer stay should spread out in the Junior Suite with Living & Dining Area, which opens onto a semi-private stone patio with a bocce court and a firepit in the warmer months.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
21 May 2026
-
Huxley might easily have written a simpler novel glorifying intellectuals while mocking Stoyte’s greed and indifference to suffering.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 May 2026
Adjective
-
Tony winner Danny Burstein turned the question back on the Variety interviewer as a joke, pitching a story about a working-class kid from Brooklyn who ends up an awards editor.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
19 May 2026
-
In elementary school classrooms and on the streets of working-class Queens, New York, in the 1980s and ‘90s, the American Dream was our north star.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Middle-class.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/middle-class. Accessed 23 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
