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I'm a big John Steinbeck fan. Cormac McCarthy. I've always loved the stories of regular people. Mark Twain, too. When you look back at some of the epic writers of our country's history, very rarely do you find upper-class royalty. We seem to delve into the struggle of life and the labor of life much more frequently.
Lucas Neff

Meaning of "upper-class" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF UPPER-CLASS

upper-class  [ˌˈʌpəˈklɑːs] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF UPPER-CLASS

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Upper-Class is an adjective.
The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.

WHAT DOES UPPER-CLASS MEAN IN ENGLISH?

upper-class

Upper class

The upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of the wealthiest members of society, who also wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is generally contained within the wealthiest 1-2% of the population, and is distinguished by immense wealth which is passed on from generation to generation. This popular definition is at odds, however, with how the upper class views itself: as members of families that have been long distinguished not merely by wealth or fame which are ostensibly available to all in a democratic society but rather by generations of leadership in public service, education, charity, the military, and the arts. Because the upper classes of a society may no longer rule the society in which they are living they are often referred to as the old upper classes and they are often culturally distinct from the newly rich middle classes that tend to dominate public life in modern social democracies.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH UPPER-CLASS


class
klɑːs
club-class
ˈklʌbˌklɑːs
declass
diːˈklɑːs
fiberglass
ˈfaɪbəɡlɑːs
first-class
ˈfɜːstˌklɑːs
glass
ɡlɑːs
interclass
ˌɪntəˈklɑːs
lower-class
ˌləʊəˈklɑːs
masterclass
ˈmɑːstəˌklɑːs
middle-class
ˈmɪdəl klɑːs
misclass
ˌmɪsˈklɑːs
nonclass
ˌnɒnˈklɑːs
outclass
ˌaʊtˈklɑːs
overclass
ˌəʊvəˈklɑːs
second-class
ˌsɛkəndˈklɑːs
subclass
ˈsʌbˌklɑːs
superclass
ˈsuːpəˌklɑːs
top-class
ˈtɒpˈklɑːs
underclass
ˈʌndəˌklɑːs
working-class
ˌwɜːkɪŋˈklɑːs

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE UPPER-CLASS

upper ranks
upper regions
Upper Rhine
upper school
upper sideband
Upper Silesia
upper sixth
Upper Tunguska
Upper Volta
upper works
Upper Yosemite Falls
upper-case
upper-crust
upperclassman
upperclassmen
uppercut
uppercutting
uppermost
upperpart

WORDS THAT END LIKE UPPER-CLASS

business class
club class
dancing class
economy class
evening class
first class
form class
gym class
high-class
lass
lower class
master class
middle class
second class
sergeant first class
standard class
third class
upper class
upper middle class
working class
world-class

Synonyms and antonyms of upper-class in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «upper-class» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF UPPER-CLASS

Find out the translation of upper-class to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of upper-class from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «upper-class» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

上层阶级
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

de clase alta
570 millions of speakers

English

upper-class
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

उच्चवर्गीय
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

الطبقة العليا
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

высшего класса
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

de classe alta
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

উচ্চ শ্রেণী
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

aristocratique
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

kelas atasan
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Oberklasse
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

上流階級の
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

상류층
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Ndhuwur kelas
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

tầng lớp thượng lưu
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

உயர் வகுப்பு
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

उच्च वर्ग
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

üst sınıf
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

upper- class
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

wyższej klasy
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

вищого класу
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

- clasa de sus
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

ανώτερης τάξης
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

bo-klas
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

överklass
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

upper-class
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of upper-class

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «UPPER-CLASS»

The term «upper-class» is quite widely used and occupies the 40.225 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
82
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «upper-class» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of upper-class
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «upper-class».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «UPPER-CLASS» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «upper-class» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «upper-class» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about upper-class

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «UPPER-CLASS»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word upper-class.
1
Michael Caine
If someone is very upper-class, you have a stereotype of him which is probably true. If someone has a working-class accent, you have no idea who you're talking to.
2
Ben Chaplin
When I first left drama school, I was too posh for the working-class parts and not posh enough for the upper-class roles. You know what England is like: the gradations of accent and how you're judged by them are still there. I discovered that to get a break you have to lie about where you're from.
3
Deepak Chopra
In every conversation I've had - with housewives in Mumbai, with middle-class people, upper-class, in the slums - everyone says there is an underlying consciousness of karma. That people believe in karma - that what you're putting out is going to come back. If I do something to you, the energy of it is going to come back to me in the future.
4
Henry Louis Gates
I believe in the law. I think we have a great system of justice. But I do think that system of justice has been corrupted by racism and classism. I think it's difficult for 'poor people' - poor white people, brown people - to be treated fairly before the law in the same way that upper-class people are.
5
Francois Gautier
I was born in Paris in 1950. I had a strict upper-class Catholic education but I never really fitted in the system and revolted against it quite early.
6
Spalding Gray
I was raised as an upper-class WASP in New England, and there was this old tradition there that everyone would simply be guided into the right way after Ivy League college and onward and upward. And it rejected me, I rejected it, and I ended up as a kind of refugee, really.
7
Phyllis Logan
'Downton Abbey' about upper-class posh people: of course it is.
8
Holly Near
White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.
9
Lucas Neff
I'm a big John Steinbeck fan. Cormac McCarthy. I've always loved the stories of regular people. Mark Twain, too. When you look back at some of the epic writers of our country's history, very rarely do you find upper-class royalty. We seem to delve into the struggle of life and the labor of life much more frequently.
10
Stacy Schiff
We don't know how Cleopatra spent her days, but we do know how other Hellenistic monarchs spent their days. There has been a great amount of scholarship in the last 30 years about education in the Hellenistic world and women in the Hellenistic world. We now know how an upper-class woman was educated in her day.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «UPPER-CLASS»

Discover the use of upper-class in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to upper-class and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
In his bestselling work of "comic sociology," David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today's upper class -- those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture.
David Brooks, 2010
2
Privilege, Power, and Place: The Geography of the American ...
An analysis of where the American upper classes live and take their vacations.
Stephen Richard Higley, 1995
3
Our Kind of People
An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.
Lawrence Otis Graham, 2009
4
Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class
This proper Philadelphia story starts with the city's golden age at the close of the eighteenth century.
Edward Digby Baltzell, 1989
5
Above Stairs: Social Life in Upper-class Victoria, 1843-1918
In Above Stairs, get to know the the Douglases, the Pembertons, the Skinners, the Creases, the O'Reillys, the Trutches, the Rithets and the Barnards.
Valerie Green, 2011
6
The Old Upper Class - Britain's Aristocracy
Seminar paper from the year 1998 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2.0 (B), University of Osnabruck (Anglistics), 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In ...
Victoria Krummel, 2008
7
Class in America: Q-Z
Some scholars use the terms upper class and elite interchangeably, whereas others argue that the latter is an even more select subgroup (or "overclass") that commands even greater power and wealth. Identifying the upper class illustrates  ...
Robert E. Weir, 2007
8
Down to Earth Sociology: 14th Edition: Introductory ...
They vitally affect our ideas of the world—and of our place in it. FROM A CLASS PERSPECTIVE , the American upper class ex- hibits a class solidarity derived from the group awareness that they share a common fate. They consider one ...
James M. Henslin, 2007
9
Betty Ann Tittle Tattle Reproduces the Upper Class: Gender ...
This paper examines the role that elite women played in class reproduction in Kansas City between 1924-1934 through an examination of 40 issues of the elite women's magazine, The Independent.
Nicole Perry, 2008
10
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: Or 2000 Years of ...
Examines how England's peculiar class system was established by some snobby French nobles whose posh descendents still have wine cellars and second homes in the Dordogne.
John O'Farrell, 2008

5 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «UPPER-CLASS»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term upper-class is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Upper class rail passengers not moving to airlines: Eco Survey
Contrary to the popular belief, a raise in rail fares has not led upper-class domestic travellers to opt for airlines, though domestic airlines offered heavy discounts, ... «Business Standard, Feb 15»
2
New money tycoons 'have reduced Sloane Ranger upper-class set …
comments. They were once the future of Britain's upper-class; well-dressed, well-educated young socialites who were perfectly schooled in etiquette and charm. «Daily Mail, Feb 15»
3
For US Orthodox, 'upper-class' incomes often not enough
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – For Orthodox Jews in the United States, President Barack Obama's proposed tax reforms present a ... «The Times of Israel, Feb 15»
4
Super Bowl for the Rich: Upper-Class 91, Middle-Class 9
Just 10% of Americans own 91 percent of the nation's stocks and mutual funds, according to economist Edward Wolff (Table 7). Most of the remainder is held by ... «AlterNet, Jan 15»
5
What It's Really Like to Be Rich
That stress is closely correlated with financial hardship: While just 7 percent of upper-class adults say they struggled to pay their rent or mortgage in the last year, ... «U.S. News & World Report, Sep 12»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Upper-Class [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/upper-class-1>. Apr 2024 ».
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