middle class

middle class (plural middle classes)

1. A social and economic class lying above the working class and below the upper class.

   Synonyms: middling class, middling sort

   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist‎^[2], volume 408, number 8848, archived from the original on 8 August 2013:

     All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.

2. (in the plural) The groups in society composed of professionals, semi-professionals, and lower to middle managerial level workers.

In US usage, middle class is chiefly defined by income and encompasses average earners – often it is classified very broadly and covers all except the very poor and very rich whether they work in professional or manual occupations. In UK usage, middle class is defined more by cultural and social status, typically including people working in professional jobs but not trades regardless of income. When defined in monetary terms, it usually refers to all above-average earners with the exception of the aristocracy, who are upper class.^[1]

• lower middle class
• upper middle class

• middle-class (adjective)

• bourgeoisie
• bourgie
• white-collar
• yuppie, yuppies

• middle class on Wikipedia.Wikipedia