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Glite Dictionary
socio-economic class

socio-economic class

1 3.7
A group of people with similar income, job and education levels
  • noun
  • /ˌsoʊsiəʊˈɛkəˌnɑːmɪk klæs/
translation icon : clase socioeconómica
  • All these results together suggest that students could be assuming that a Latino/a person is less affluent than a white person and that they tend to belong to a low socio-economic class.
  • low socio-economic class

You've got different races, different backgrounds, different socio economic classes all saying the same thing.

Examples

  • Children raised by their grandparents can be found among all religions, ethnicities, and socio-economic classes (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler).

    Academic text (2006)

  • You've got different races, different backgrounds, different socio economic classes all saying the same thing.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • The element of socio-economic class in the story provides obvious background.

    Blog text (24)

  • What does it say about our society that we allow prison to trump freedom for people of certain races and socio-economic classes?

    Blog text (23)

  • If I recall my college sociology courses correctly, most people in the US are pretty much stuck in whatever socio-economic class they were born into.

    Blog text (11)

  • The socio-economic classes of the participants were reasonably diverse, although middle-class children were more prevalent.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The aim of the present study was to examine the role of maternal socio-economic class and nutrition in the development of fetal malnutrition in Nigeria.

    Academic text (2007)

  • After all, we are talking about a limited Brazilian readership due to economic constraints, one precluding the purchase of books that are costly for the lower socio-economic classes.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Many people in the same socio-economic class face similar challenges regarding education and employment.

  • Social programs are often designed to address the needs of individuals from different socio-economic classes.

Synonyms

class
vssocio-economic class
∞ 1.8

A group of people or things with a shared quality

is limited to people's wealth, rank, and education
social class
vssocio-economic class
11 3.0

A group of people with similar money, jobs, or education

is more formal and stresses combined social and economic factors
stratum
vssocio-economic class
  • Specialized
2 7.8

A group of people with similar social position, income, and education

is the general everyday term for grouping people by status

How Privileged

elite
258 4.7
upper class
15 3.4
socio-economic class
1 3.7
working class
69 2.8
underclass
  • Specialized
19 5.5

Surface Forms

socio-economic class singular
socio-economic classes plural

Morphology

socio-economic + class

The sense 'a group defined by social and economic status' is directly built from 'socio-' / 'socio-economic' (relating to social and economic factors) plus 'class' (a category or group). This compound follows regular English formation and mirrors constructions in many languages, so a learner who knows the constituent meanings can readily infer the MWE's meaning despite its slightly formal register.

Etymology

Socio-economic class puts together three ideas: socio means people or society, economic means money and work, and class means a 'group' or level. So socio-economic class is a name for a 'group' of people who share a similar 'social' position, 'money', or education.