low·er class

(lō′ər)

The socioeconomic class or classes of lower than middle rank in a society.

low′er-class′ adj.

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.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

lower-class - occupying the lowest socioeconomic position in a society

low-class

lowborn - of humble birth or origins; "a topsy-turvy society of lowborn rich and blue-blooded poor"

middle-class - occupying a socioeconomic position intermediate between those of the lower classes and the wealthy

upper-class - occupying the highest socioeconomic position in a society

Translations

lower-class

[ˈləʊəˌklɑːs] ADJ → de (la) clase baja
a lower-class family → una familia de clase baja

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

lower-class

[ˌləuəˈklɑːs] adj → proletario/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in periodicals archive

The Bahawalpur State provides a different picture of women's life in a traditional society that lacked hard formal constraints on the personal freedoms of lower-class women.

WOMEN OF BAHAWALPUR STATE DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC STUDY

Other research results (see Alves and Rossi in the 1970s) highlight that "higher-class people are more willing to accept inequality based on merit, while lower-class people are more willing to accept inequality based on need" (Kerbo 2009:448).

Acceptable and unacceptable sources of inequality in Romania. A visual study

As a result, lower-class youth faced less nurturing familial environments, became delinquent at school, had to grow up faster, and had to seize the forms of status that were realistic to them, which often took the form of heightened aggressive and sexualized behavior.

Class cultures, socialization, and the school: the university of Chicago's committee on human development and the fight for educational equity, 1940-51

Lower-class participants who expected more turmoil in their lives were more likely to turn to community to cope with perceived chaos, the study found.

Affluent People Less Charitable in Crises?

3)--imposed by the middle class on the (largely lower-class) consumers of dancehall culture.

Man Vibes: Masculinities in Jamaican Dancehall

A tri-level structure emerged between upper-class benefactors, middle-class service providers, and lower-class recipients.

Blood and Fire: Godly Love in a Pentecostal Emerging Church

In response to our package of articles about working-class women, reader ANNE MANYAK writes, "I've been frustrated and straight-up pissed off for years that the voices and lives of middle-and lower-class working women are nowhere in the media.

Blue-collar to the bone

The 27 January 2007 Washington Post reports that lower-class Mexicans get more than 40% of their protein from tortillas, which also provide an important source of dietary fiber.

Tortillas take a tumble in Mexico

The lack of representation of lower-class students in these institutions, the authors conclude, is largely due to the correlation in the country between social class and the measures used in the admissions process.

Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education

Other insightful analyses involve the honor of faites (bullies) and the effeminate image of rateros (petty thieves), in addition to the intolerance and abuse of vagrants and lower-class men whom authorities found it convenient to classify as vagrants.

The Criminals of Lima and their World: The Prison Experience, 1850-1935

He's gonna say he owns me." That fear is consistent with polls finding that while lower-class women tend to share the relatively egalitarian view of gender roles common to both men and women of the middle class, lower-class men tend to subscribe to a more traditional conception of those roles--roles their partners may not be eager to fill.

Marital mythology: why the new crisis in marriage isn't