UPPER CLASS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does upper class mean? 

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

1. the class occupying the highest position in the social hierarchy

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• UPPER CLASS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The class occupying the highest position in the social hierarchy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

upper class; upper crust

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

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "upper class"):

elite; elite group (a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status)

aristocracy; gentry (the most powerful members of a society)

people in power; ruling class (the class of people exerting power or authority)

 Context examples 

His idea, for which the novels were responsible, had been that only formal proposals obtained in the upper classes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Down below where he lived was the ignoble, and he wanted to purge himself of the ignoble that had soiled all his days, and to rise to that sublimated realm where dwelt the upper classes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)