LOWER CLASS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lower class mean? 

• LOWER CLASS (noun)
  The noun LOWER CLASS has 1 sense:

1. the social class lowest in the social hierarchy

  Familiarity information: LOWER CLASS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOWER CLASS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The social class lowest in the social hierarchy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

lower class; underclass

Hypernyms ("lower class" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

 Context examples 

Hence the fierce mutterings of the lower classes and the constant discontent, breaking out into local tumult and outrage, and culminating some years later in the great rising of Tyler.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The shutters had been opened, but the blinds were already down, with that obedience to the etiquette of death which the British woman of the lower classes always rigidly observes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The superintendent of Lowood (for such was this lady) having taken her seat before a pair of globes placed on one of the tables, summoned the first class round her, and commenced giving a lesson on geography; the lower classes were called by the teachers: repetitions in history, grammar, &c., went on for an hour; writing and arithmetic succeeded, and music lessons were given by Miss Temple to some of the elder girls.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)