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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This implies a poor Debt-to-Equity Ratio of 52.5% (vs. 19.4% for S&P 500).—
Trefis Team,
Forbes.com,
16 Aug. 2025
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Additionally, over-saturating with water is a poor choice for these floors.—
Daley Quinn,
Southern Living,
16 Aug. 2025
Noun
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This film was a labor of love, exploring the imagination of the working class through the transporting power of music.—
Matt Donnelly,
Variety,
12 Aug. 2025
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The agenda centers on an insightful reckoning: How can the Democratic Party represent itself as the problem-solving party of the working class when its track record exhibits innumerable failures in major cities?—
Seth David Radwell,
Chicago Tribune,
3 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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But it was intended to be a simple, three-course meal, the documents showed.—
Chiara Eisner,
NPR,
16 Aug. 2025
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In North Carolina, Republicans are a few votes shy of a supermajority in one chamber but still control the redistricting process because the state’s congressional maps are not subject to veto and therefore can be passed by a simple majority in the legislature.—
Elena Shao,
New York Times,
16 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Marvel Cinematic Universe regular Ruffalo stars in the seven-episode season as an FBI agent who, at the behest of his boss (Martha Plimpton), leads a cross-agency task force to investigate a spate of home invasion robberies in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia.—
Rick Porter,
HollywoodReporter,
12 Aug. 2025
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The celebration at the majestic 146-year-old mansion is the latest in a string of major improvements in the working-class section of Nashville that runs from the airport to the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell noted after the ceremony.—
Brad Schmitt,
The Tennessean,
11 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Middle class.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/middle%20class. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.
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