1
Core meaning
A member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
Example
The novel follows a prosperous urban bourgeois.
bourgeois
/ˈbʊərʒwɑː/ · BOOR-zhwahnoun
A member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
Use bourgeois to express this relationship precisely: a member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
What bourgeois Really Means
The word becomes easier to use when its closely related senses are separated and compared.
2
Common noun frame
Use this noun in a complete noun phrase, adding the complement that identifies what it refers to when needed.
Example
Merchants formed an influential bourgeois class.
3
Analytical distinction
Choose it when this exact concept matters; a related term may describe its cause, evidence, or opposite instead.
Example
The writer mocked what she considered bourgeois respectability.
Use bourgeois Naturally
Notice how the surrounding noun or clause reveals the exact shade of meaning.
The novel follows a prosperous urban bourgeois.
Merchants formed an influential bourgeois class.
The writer mocked what she considered bourgeois respectability.
Precision Matters
Bourgeois overlaps with several common words, but each carries a different emphasis.
bourgeois
vs.Means a member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
aristocrat
Means a member of a hereditary, wealthy, or socially privileged ruling class.
bourgeois
vs.Means a member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
elite
Means belonging to or selected as the most skilled, powerful, privileged, or successful group.
bourgeois
vs.Means a member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
bureaucrat
Means an official working within a government or large administrative system, often associated with rules and procedure.
bourgeois
vs.Means a member of the middle class, especially one associated with conventional material or commercial values.
provincial
Means limited in outlook, experience, or sophistication; also, relating to a province outside the capital.
Test bourgeois in Context
The person belongs to the property-owning commercial middle class.
1
The historian described the shop owner as a prosperous ___ whose status came from trade rather than hereditary title.