| 1. | a class of people intermediate between the classes of higher and lower social rank or standing; the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like. |
| 2. | the class traditionally intermediate between the aristocratic class and the laboring class. |
| 3. | an intermediate class. |
[mid-l-klas, -klahs] 
| of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the middle class; bourgeois: middle-class taste; middle-class morality. |
| middle class n. The socioeconomic class between the working class and the upper class, usually including professionals, highly skilled laborers, and lower and middle management. mid'dle-class' (mĭd'l-klās') adj. |
A social and economic class composed of those more prosperous than the poor, or lower class, and less wealthy than the upper class. Middle class is sometimes loosely used to refer to the bourgeoisie. In the United States and other industrial countries, the term is often applied to white-collar, as opposed to blue-collar, workers.
Note: Values commonly associated with the middle class include a desire for social respectability and material wealth and an emphasis on the family and education.