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

But the solution is likewise complex; children who are read to are more likely to show improved literacy overtime but for many working class parents and families, time is in short supply. — Caroline Reilly, Forbes.com, 11 July 2026 Outreach to the Latino working class should stress economic dignity, not socialist ideology. — León Krauze, Washington Post, 7 July 2026

Adjective

Family Matters, about the ups and downs of a working-class Black family, became a favorite in ABC’s TGIF lineup. — Raechal Shewfelt, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Aug. 2026 Rivas Hernandez was 11 then, a girl with big brown eyes who loved to sing and dance and lived with her parents and two older siblings in a modest stucco house in Lake Elsinore, a working-class exurb about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for working class

Recent Examples of Synonyms for working class

Noun

The massacre devastated Wilmington’s flourishing Black middle class and sent a message of impunity to white vigilantes nationwide.

— Namara Smith, New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2026
Even after the 1995 legislature created a new credit to offset a portion of local property taxes paid by the middle class, that group and the wealthy both paid very similar effective rates for most of the income tax’s first two decades.

— Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 3 Aug. 2026

Definition of middle class

Noun

The traditional Marxist framework may explain why Flaubert, the conflicted son of a successful provincial surgeon, wrote naturalistic novels mocking the grandiose aspirations of the rural bourgeoisie, Sartre conceded.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 21 July 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

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
Their attempts to destroy the bourgeois family were, like the efforts of Suzanna’s mother and grandmother, ambivalent and half-hearted.

— Julius Taranto, The Atlantic, 1 June 2026

Definition of bourgeois

Adjective

But tensions have opened up between data center boosters and some community organizations that want to see more jobs and economic benefits go to local residents, especially predominantly poor Hispanic farm and food processing workers.

— Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Money, 11 Aug. 2026
Conventional wisdom usually attributes those failures to changing markets, disruptive competitors, or poor leadership.

— Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2026

Definition of poor

Adjective

In 1929, an Armenian immigrant family founded what would become the Colombo brand, selling large containers of plain yogurt as a convenience for fellow transplants from other parts of the world.

— Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 11 Aug. 2026
Business leaders, model risk teams, auditors and regulators all need different levels of explanation, from a plain-language summary to a detailed technical trace.

— Sandeep Shivam, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of plain

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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 14 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of working class

noun

adjective

Example Sentences

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