working class
116
2.8
- noun
- /ˈwɜrkɪŋ klæs/
- Many individuals in the working class struggle to make ends meet despite their hard work.
- industrial working class
- working-class life
- working-class women
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Watch on YouTubeHow do we bring back the working class to the Democratic Party?
- How do we bring back the working class to the Democratic Party?
- Their billionaires couldn't get it done because our working class people saw through their lies.
- And that's especially true for working class men and black boys and men.
- Now, Jeffrey Epstein was a college dropout from working class Coney Island.
- So people, working class people don't have this default view.
- Yeah, I guess I'm from a lower middle class, working class background, right.
- My, my message is from Tilsley in Manchester, Very working class, rough town.
- He cannot relate on any terms whatsoever with working class Americans.
- They are white, white, white working class voters.
Examples
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I, I grew up with nothing, you know, in a working class family.
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Even with this election, some working class people have chosen Trump.
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The second reason why the white working class is angry is cultural.
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So this is the working class telling you what they feel.
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Absolutely nothing has been done to help the working class in the UK.
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Too many things are happening and the working class is hit in too many ways.
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We are here, so the working class can have more power!
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In his generation, the great journey was from the working class to the professional class.
Fiction book (2000) -
The middle class and working class people are being crushed.
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But above and beyond that, working class people live under enormous stress.
Synonyms
485
2.3
The group of people who work, usually organized in unions
17
7.9
People who work for pay and do not own land or factories
1
3.9
People who do jobs using their hands in places like factories
Antonyms
How Low
- Offensive
1
9.9
- Specialized
16
5.5
20
2.7
116
2.8
481
2.0
38
3.4
234
4.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'working' (engaged in paid work) + 'class' (a category) yields a category of people who work for a living, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the social group of workers. Although sociological nuances (manual/industrial vs. professional distinctions) may require more background, the core sense is transparent and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Working class began when many people worked long hours in factories and lived in the same neighborhoods, forming a group apart from owners and managers. The word working shows they did paid manual work and class means a social group, so it now means 'people who do manual or industrial work'.