bourgeois

adjective

Definition of bourgeoisnext
as in middle-class
belonging to the class of people of middle social or economic rank The neighborhood was occupied primarily by bourgeois families.

Related Words

Relevance

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 bourgeois Even if the movie gets a bit crazy in an apocalyptic epilogue, its picture of bourgeois smugness due for a takedown is delicious. — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026 Animals could offer liberatory models to throw off bourgeois conventions, returning Surrealists to primal ways of being. — Kelly Presutti, ARTnews.com, 28 Aug. 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 And their struggle, within their world, to lead a good life, to lead a life that has meaning—their struggle between whether to pursue romantic adventure or a staid, bourgeois life—felt very real to me, at age twenty-five. — Literary Hub, 26 May 2026 See All Example Sentences for bourgeois
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bourgeois
  1. middle-class
  2. working-class
  3. plain
Adjective
  • And judging by the amount of controversy that’s already been stirred up, Sacha Baron Cohen’s iconic character of a middle-class white Brit appropriating hip-hop and Jamaican mannerisms still has the ability to rile people.
    — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The rigid enforcement of the NBA introduced another era of expensive hardbacks, giving a new lease of life to the middle-class circulating libraries.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of middle-class
Adjective
  • Its founders, Tomm Moore, Paul Young and Nora Twomey, met while studying animation at Ballyfermot College, a vocational school in a working-class Dublin suburb.
    — Stacy Perman, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026
  • But, ultimately, Brown lost because many working-class voters had moved on from the Democrats.
    — Dan Kaufman, New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of working-class
Adjective
  • On the fall 2026 runways, romantic clothes arrived styled like everything else in your closet—a lace skirt with a cotton shirt, a gown with a combat boot, a ruffled collar over plain velvet trousers—and the shift is visible on the street too.
    — Laurence Goldberg, Vogue, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Refrigerated tortellini is one of the fastest ways to turn plain broth into a satiating, delicious meal.
    — Danielle Bouchard, Martha Stewart, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of plain

Browse Nearby Words

bourg
bourgeois
bourgeoisie
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bourgeois.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bourgeois. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of reticent

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Pwn, Skibidi, Girlboss and Other Words Added to the 2026 Scrabble Dictionary

The Words of the Week - Oct. 30

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All