bourgeoisie

UK/ˌbʊə(ɹ)ʒwɑːˈziː/US/ˌbʊə(ɹ)ʒwɑːˈziː/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,946 of 15,258neutral

The bourgeoisie is the property-owning middle class. The rising bourgeoisie.

It is a term from political analysis rather than ordinary speech, where it sounds hostile. The bourgeoisie in Marx meant those who owned the means of production rather than anybody comfortable.

Definitions of bourgeoisie

1nounbourgeoisieThe property-owning middle class.C1
“The whole essay is about the bourgeoisie of one small city.”

bourgeoisie is a class.

Where it comes from

French bourgeoisie comes from bourgeois, a townsman, from bourg, a town.

Proto-Indo-European
*bʰerǵʰ-
French
bourgeoisie
English, today
bourgeoisie

Built from

bourgeois · French — a class of citizens who were wealthier members of the Third Estate

French bourgeoisie, from bourgeois (“a class of citizens who were wealthier members of the Third Estate”), from bourgeois, “burghers”, i.e., townspeople.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

bourgeoisie in the wild

Following this revolution, as the exploitation of labour is abolished and a classless society is established, the bourgeoisie would cease to exist.
Bourgeoisie
Thus, thinkers in the Marxist tradition often refer to the capitalist state as the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and liberal democracy as bourgeois democracy.
Capitalist state
Social classes in Italy are bourgeoisie, white-collar middle class, urban petite bourgeoisie, rural petite bourgeoisie, urban working class and rural working class.
Social class in Italy
The charter of Brussels, as codified in 1570 in Articles 206 and following, provided the conditions of admission to the bourgeoisie of the city.
Bourgeois of Brussels

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary