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| 1. | the class of wage earners, esp. those who earn their living by manual labor or who are dependent for support on daily or casual employment; the working class. |
| 2. | (in Marxist theory) the class of workers, esp. industrial wage earners, who do not possess capital or property and must sell their labor to survive. |
| 3. | the lowest or poorest class of people, possessing no property, esp. in ancient Rome. |
In Marxism, the industrial working class, people without property.
A term often applied to industrial workers, particularly by followers of Karl Marx.