Definition of working class in English:

working class

Translate working class into Spanish

noun

treated as singular or plural

The socioeconomic group consisting of people who are employed in manual or industrial work.
‘he came from the working class’
- ‘the housing needs of the working classes’
- ‘Middle-class models of domesticity gradually spread into both the working classes and aristocratic elites.’
- ‘The working classes and middle classes are now at the mercies of the regional land market.’
- ‘The least likely to reach a later retirement age are from the manual working class.’
- ‘Of course, many of the latter could be working class in the Marxist definition of the term.’
- ‘Though the absolute level of social mobility has grown, there has been no change in the relative mobility rates between the middle and working classes.’
- ‘Living standards, however, have plummeted for the middle and working classes.’
- ‘The capitalist class are spoken for, the working class in big numbers are sitting this one out.’
- ‘They are drawn largely from a social layer which itself is not part of the working class or peasantry.’
- ‘In turn it is the working class who are the main victims of sectarian division.’
- ‘He suggests that Marx lost his faith in the ability of the working class to fight for change.’
- ‘It was a means of incorporating the working classes within the existing social and political order, and thus preventing the threat of revolt from below.’
- ‘Indeed, the resistance of the working classes to socialist ideas made them the despair of middle-class intellectuals.’
- ‘You thus argue that reducing corporate income taxes benefits big business but not the working classes.’
- ‘Higher wages gave the working classes greater consuming power than they had had in Britain.’
- ‘He was from a ruling class background but took up the cause of the working class.’
- ‘It shows the splendour of Europe's royal families while documenting the poverty of the working classes.’
- ‘The working class has to behave collectively because it is organised collectively.’
- ‘For the working class, the fact that there is free association is very important indeed.’
- ‘He did not ignore the working class, but he made no attempt to help it organise.’
- ‘But it is clear, if sometimes understated, that the Resistance relied largely on the left and the working classes.’

Pronunciation

working class

/ˌwərkiNG ˈklas/ /ˌwərkɪŋ ˈklæs/

adjective

Relating to people belonging to the working class.
‘a working-class community’
- ‘I grew up working class, raised by a single mother’
- ‘A majority of single parents, immigrants and working-class people have no savings and own no assets at all.’
- ‘The Labour Party has a Christmas present for the working-class people of New Zealand.’
- ‘However, working-class identity is still strong and support for socialist ideas remains firm.’
- ‘It was enlivened by a fresh wave of working-class migrants who brought socialism and republicanism with them.’
- ‘In Vietnam, this changed with the emergence of a largely working-class military.’
- ‘Job losses and pay cuts have prompted many working-class families to borrow even more.’
- ‘Stewart was one of six children born into a working-class Polish family in New Jersey.’
- ‘There has been a rising wave of both working-class and peasant struggles in many countries.’
- ‘Separating men and women in the selection process cuts across working-class unity.’
- ‘She soon became resentful of her entrapment within a working-class community where she never felt at home.’
- ‘It really wasn't so long ago that the Labour Party was the working-class party.’
- ‘At the same time, the limits of nationalist and working-class organization have been recognized.’
- ‘She turned to her close friend, Parker, a working-class girl from a humble background.’
- ‘Most were poor, working-class males who hoped to return home to their families financially successful.’
- ‘I left school just an ordinary working-class boy with no qualifications.’
- ‘As a bright but unremarkable working-class child, she was crippled by shyness and self-doubt.’
- ‘Pat, an ordinary working-class London girl, has a caring family, a job she enjoys and her own flat.’
- ‘The entirely working-class cast of characters in this novel was then an innovation.’
- ‘In a largely working-class golfing nation like Scotland, that surely would have been no bad thing.’
- ‘This is why they can no longer rely on the working-class vote.’
low-ranking, low, lowly, lower-class, plebeian, proletarian, working-class, undistinguished, poor, mean, ignoble, of low birth, low-born, of low rank