un·der·class

(ŭn′dər-klăs′)

The lowest societal stratum, usually composed of the disadvantaged: "Divorced women and their children are becoming a new underclass" (Barbara Fisher Williamson).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

underclass

(ˈʌndəˌklɑːs)

(Sociology) a class beneath the usual social scale consisting of the most disadvantaged people, such as the unemployed in inner cities

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

un•der•class

(ˈʌn dərˌklæs, -ˌklɑs)

n.

a social stratum consisting of persons living in persistent poverty and social isolation.

[1915–20]

usage: See collective noun.

underclass

The lowest level in a society, consisting largely of the disadvantaged or permanently unemployed.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	underclass - the social class lowest in the social hierarchy lower class social class, socio-economic class, stratum, class - people having the same social, economic, or educational status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class"
Adj.	1.	underclass - belonging to the lowest and least privileged social stratum; "underclass mothers and children" underprivileged - lacking the rights and advantages of other members of society

Translations

underclass

[ˈʌndəklɑːs] N → clase f inferior

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

underclass

[ˈʌndə^rklɑːs] n → quart-monde m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

underclass

[ˈʌndəˌklɑːs] n → sottoproletariato

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

As long as these exchanges are overlooked, it will be possible to compartmentalize black drug subcultural practices and describe them as the product of inbreeding in an isolated underclass.

The social construction of the minority drug problem

And Barry, the second elected mayor and the first to align himself with the city's disenfranchised black underclass, was long ago anointed the living symbol of black Washington's struggle for political emancipation.

There is hope after O.J.: D.C. Mayor Barry still tries to cover up his incompetence with cries of racism, but some Black Washingtonians have finally had enough

They even suggest that the growth of a black underclass might in some way be connected to the end of conscription.

US Army explodes stereotypes

Lydia Morris, Dangerous Classes: The Underclass and Social Citizenship (New York: Routledge 1994)

Dangerous classes: the underclass and social citizenship

The paramount public policy issue today is whether this country accepts as inevitable the existence of a permanent underclass. Encoded in much of the rhetoric of concern about the "plight" of the nation's public schools, and about the family life and home environment of the children who attend these schools, is a considerable degree of ambivalence over a more fundamental question: whether this society seriously intends or even desires to educate the mostly black and Latino children who now occupy the majority of seats in its large urban school systems.

Children of value: we can educate all our children

THE idea that our "sole economic problem is the underclass" which can be solved by "obliterating" them through "education and nurture" is the most uneducated analysis I have heard for our current problems.

Wrong over reasons for 'underclass' Views of the North

THE recession could create an "embittered and racist" resentful underclass, a watchdog chief warned yesterday.

Slump 'may spark racist underclass' RECESSION

African underclass; urbanisation, crime & colonial order in Dar es Salaam.

African Underclass: Urbanisation, Crime and Colonial Order in Dar es Salaam

The danger is they will find themselves ghettoised into schools for the underclass where peer group pressure is not to achieve but to reject education and all that it can offer."

Teachers: School reforms will create an underclass 'ghetto'

Her nudes portray women of the underclass, like the astonishing Madona del silencio o Maternidad en la carcel (Madonna of Silence, or Maternity in Prison), ca.

Debora Arango: Museo de America