lower-class
lower-class — adjective
1. describing people, families, or neighbourhoods that have very little money and h
describing people, families, or neighbourhoods that have very little money and hold the lowest rank in a country's social order
Maeve grew up in a lower-class family that shared one cramped flat with her cousins.
attributive: lower-class + family/neighbourhood
The new policy aims to help lower-class children attend university without taking on heavy debt.
common collocation: lower-class children / families / households
Hao spent his teenage years in a lower-class neighbourhood on the edge of the city.
Many lower-class workers cannot afford to buy a home, even after twenty years of saving.
The author writes powerful stories about lower-class life in industrial towns during the 1950s.
- working-class
more neutral; emphasises manual or wage labour rather than poverty
- blue-collar
narrower; refers to manual or industrial workers, not social rank as a whole
- low-income
focuses purely on money; less judgemental about social rank
- upper-class
the highest social rank, traditionally wealthy and inherited
- middle-class
the social group between lower and upper, usually with stable office or professional jobs
文法句型
lower-class + noun
be lower-class
用法筆記
Almost always attributive, placed directly before a noun (lower-class family, lower-class background). Predicative use after 'be' is far less common in modern Taiwan-English coursebooks; learners writing essays should default to the attributive pattern.
常見錯誤
lower-class — noun
1. the group of people in a country who sit beneath the middle class on the social
the group of people in a country who sit beneath the middle class on the social ladder, usually with the smallest incomes and least power in society
Sari's grandfather rose from the lower class to become a respected village doctor.
common pattern: from the lower class to [higher rank]
The novel describes daily struggles among the lower classes in nineteenth-century London.
plural form: the lower classes for groups across regions or eras
Eli says better public schools give the lower class real chances to move up.
During the festival, the lower class and the rich joined the same parade.
- the working class
more neutral and self-chosen; many speakers prefer this label today
- the poor
stronger focus on lack of money; less about social rank
- the underclass
narrower and harsher; suggests long-term exclusion from work and services
- the upper class
the wealthiest and most powerful social group
- the middle class
the broad professional group between rich and poor
文法句型
the lower class
the lower classes
用法筆記
Almost always preceded by 'the' (the lower class / the lower classes), behaving like a collective noun. Distinguish from sense lower-class/adjective/1: the adjective modifies a following noun (lower-class family), while this noun refers to the group itself.