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
Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2025
The organization argued that increasing wages, especially for lower and middle class earners, could help make the state more affordable for working families.
—P.r. Lockhart, Hartford Courant, 29 July 2025
Marty Small Sr, New York Daily News, 15 Aug. 2025
The front office cleared out the vast majority of its middle-class veterans this past offseason for cash-saving purposes and left those spots to be filled with kids.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for middle class
Adjective
Paper mills and power plants provide opportunities for a middle class life in the county, where the cost of living is low.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2025
The organization argued that increasing wages, especially for lower and middle class earners, could help make the state more affordable for working families.
—P.r. Lockhart, Hartford Courant, 29 July 2025
Noun
Casinos created thousands of middle-class jobs and kept public services running.
—Marty Small Sr, New York Daily News, 15 Aug. 2025
The front office cleared out the vast majority of its middle-class veterans this past offseason for cash-saving purposes and left those spots to be filled with kids.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for middle class
Recent Examples of Synonyms for middle class
Adjective
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The White House disputes the prediction, arguing the Congressional Budget Office is a poor predictor of outcomes.—
Jessie Opoien,
jsonline.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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While poor earnings could send tech stocks down momentarily, the S&P 500 has yielded returns in most years since its inception.—
Michelle Del Rey,
USA Today,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Ultimately, the working class will continue to shape elections as 62 percent of Americans remain without a college degree and, according to Statista, only 34 percent of households earn over $100,000.—
Alex J. Rouhandeh,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Aug. 2025
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The British working class established high tea as a quick meal after the workday ended, often served at pubs on high tables (hence the name).—
Cori Sears,
Better Homes & Gardens,
19 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Middle-aged and yet still pathetically upwardly mobile, John is the harbinger here, and his nasty bourgeois values, coming between Elsie and Colleen, turn out to the be the meat in the sandwich.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
6 June 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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Most readers will be surprised to learn, for instance, that one of the early boosters of the venture was the American civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois, who would soon regret having believed that Fire-stone could hasten the emergence of an independent African bourgeoisie.—
Gregg Mitman,
Foreign Affairs,
19 Oct. 2021
Adjective
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For Zander, who has spent three decades championing play as a form of healing, the solution lies in something deceptively simple: rediscovering the human joy of play.—
William Jones,
USA Today,
29 Aug. 2025
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In simple terms, net-new ARR is a way to show how fast a company’s recurring revenue base is growing.—
Jeff Marks,
CNBC,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Spurred by the Santa Ana winds, the fires destroyed over 17,000 structures, many of them in the historically Black and working-class neighborhood of Altadena.—
River Selby
August 25,
Literary Hub,
25 Aug. 2025
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In the process, blue jeans went from being a functional item of clothing associated with working-class Americans to something far more malleable: a literal canvas by which wearers broadcast their identity.—
Stephen Mihm,
Twin Cities,
22 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Middle class.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/middle%20class. Accessed 2 Sep. 2025.
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