WORKING-CLASS Synonyms: 83 Similar and Opposite Words

working class 1 of 2

noun

Definition of working class

as in middle class

the class of people who earn money by doing usually physical work and who are not rich or powerful

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Dissimilar Words

working-class

2 of 2

adjective

as in middle-class

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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 working class

Noun

The Oscar nominee stars as Wat Tyler, an ordinary peasant who steps up to lead an extraordinary fight against King Richard II after crushing taxes and political oppression push the country’s working class to a breaking point. — Sophie Miller, Rolling Stone, 16 July 2026 But there's just no chance any working class American east of the Mississippi (or south of the Mason-Dixon) saw Ryan Blaney win. — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 13 July 2026

Adjective

Taylor, who raised more than $280,000 in his bid to unseat Simpson, goes by the moniker Matt the Welder to highlight his working-class upbringing. — CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026 The bit culminates with a real working-class lad recognizing her from the piece, only to offer his assessment that the magazine was better when Graydon Carter was in charge. — Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 19 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for working class

Recent Examples of Synonyms for working class

Noun

Every one of them started out somewhere between lower middle and middle class.

— Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Aug. 2026
Those reforms led to huge reduction in poverty, an exploding middle class and a scramble by foreign companies to access the lucrative Chinese market.

— CNN Staff, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of middle class

Adjective

Pierce’s brother Wendell (Monte Easter), an up-and-coming lawyer, is busy planning a wedding to a snooty upper-middle-class black woman named Sonia (Gaye Shannon-Burnett, who co-produced the film).

— Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 17 Aug. 2026
The extinction of the middle-class chain restaurant, from Friendly’s to Red Lobster, appeared all but inevitable.

— Hannah Goldfield, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of middle-class

Noun

The state discovered that reforms had to be beneficial to all, and so the political mission had to be implementing education and acculturation as a means of solidifying the nascent bourgeoisie.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
For a long time, the lifestyles and foibles of the modest bourgeoisie were a mainstay of art-house cinema, with urbane, upscale audiences happy to turn out to see versions of their own lives depicted on the screen.

— Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2026

Definition of bourgeoisie

Adjective

What the story is actually about almost doesn’t matter — just enjoy the quiet luxury of it all, with the ever-endearing Fabrice Luchini in the lead doing yet another bumbling, bourgeois gentleman of a certain age.

— Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 19 Aug. 2026
In sharp contrast to the first-generation members of the Frankfurt School, Habermas came from a petit-bourgeois, culturally conservative Protestant milieu, his family name going back to sixteenth-century Thuringian cobblers.

— Alex Ross, New Yorker, 15 June 2026

Definition of bourgeois

Adjective

On the other lies a park in one of the Bronx’s poorest communities, built on the site of the former Yankee Stadium after the old home of the Yankees was torn down in 2009 and 2010.

— Sam Blum, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2026
Iran’s economy was in a dire state before the war too, with poor economic conditions a key driving factor behind the anti-regime demonstrations which kicked off in the Iranian capital city Tehran in 2025.

— Billy Stockwell, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of poor

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working (at or on)

working class

working-class

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Style

“Working class.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/working%20class. Accessed 25 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of working class

noun

adjective

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

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