middle class

The socioeconomic class between the working class and the upper class, usually including professionals, highly skilled laborers, and lower and middle management.

mid′dle-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.

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

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

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

middle-class

adjective bourgeois, traditional, conventional, suburban, middle-England, petit-bourgeois He is rapidly losing the support of middle-class conservatives.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

middle-class

[ˈmɪdlˈklɑːs] ADJ → de (la) clase media; (= bourgeois) → burgués
see also middle C

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

middle-class

[ˌmɪdlˈklɑːs] adj → borghese, della borghesia

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

middle-class

→ مِنَ الْطَّبَقَةِ الْوُسْطَى střední třídy middelklasse- mittelständisch μεσαίας τάξης de clase media keskiluokkainen classe moyenne srednje klase borghese 中流階級の 중산 계급의 burgerlijk middelklasse- z klasy średniej de classe média относящийся к среднему классу medelklass- ชนชั้นกลาง orta sınıf thuộc tầng lớp trung lưu 中产阶级的

Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

'practical' journalist and middle-class money-getter.

Veal.' Its real purpose, characteristically enough, was the concealed one of promoting the sale of an unsuccessful religious book, but its literary importance lies first in the extraordinarily convincing mass of minute details which it casts about an incredible incident and second in the complete knowledge (sprung from Defoe's wide experience in journalism, politics, and business) which it displays of a certain range of middle-class characters and ideas.

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and to him is given the palm in the middle-class of speech' is just, but is liable to give a wrong impression.

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He felt that, single-minded and self-sacrificing as his parents were, there yet existed certain latent prejudices of theirs, as middle-class people, which it would require some tact to overcome.

This belief was confirmed by his experience of women, which, having latterly been extended from the cultivated middle-class into the rural community, had taught him how much less was the intrinsic difference between the good and wise woman of one social stratum and the good and wise woman of another social stratum, than between the good and bad, the wise and the foolish, of the same stratum or class.

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We're a respectable middle-class family, living at Highgate."

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It is sickening that vulgar, middle-class virtue should pay."

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In this connection I should like to confess my surprise on finding that notwithstanding all its apparatus of analysis the story consists for the most part of physical impressions; impressions of sound and sight, railway station, streets, a trotting horse, reflections in mirrors and so on, rendered as if for their own sake and combined with a sublimated description of a desirable middle-class town-residence which somehow manages to produce a sinister effect.

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He belonged to one of those middle-class families which were called indifferently, in the impertinent language of the last century, the high bourgeoise or the petty nobility.

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I will add that his finger-nails were scrupulously attended to, and that he meant to marry a well-educated young lady (as yet unspecified) whose person was good, and whose connections, in a solid middle-class way, were undeniable.

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The result, concluded Quigley, was "a total reversal of middle-class values by presenting as interesting or admirable simple negation of these values by aimless, shiftless, and totally irresponsible people." The political ascent of Arnold Schwarzenegger presents a splendid example of the reversal of values Quigley described.

TV or not TV? Not! TV programming is designed to shepherd viewers into compromising their values. To preserve freedom, Americans should severely limit or entirely eliminate their TV viewing