bourgeois

1 of 2

adjective

bour·​geois ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
1
: of, relating to, or characteristic of the social middle class
2
: marked by a concern for material interests and respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity
3
: dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic
bourgeoisification noun
bourgeoisify verb

bourgeois

2 of 2

noun

bour·​geois ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
plural bourgeois
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä(z),
 also  ˈbu̇zh-,
 or  ˈbüzh-,
or
bu̇rzh-ˈwä(z) How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
1
a
: a middle-class person
b
2
: a person with social behavior and political views held to be influenced by private-property interest : capitalist
3
plural : bourgeoisie

Examples of bourgeois in a Sentence

Adjective Indignation about the powers that be and the bourgeois fools who did their bidding—that was all you needed … You were an intellectual. Tom Wolfe, Harper's, June 2000
Even before the 19th century was over, successive waves of collection mania had rolled across Europe and America, submerging country homes and bourgeois town houses in ferns and faux-Grecian ruins … Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review, 7 Feb. 1999
Or is Sartre's existentialism to be understood as only a way station in his transit from a bourgeois intellectual to a Marxist ideologue? Walker Percy, "The State of the Novel," 1977, in Signposts in a Strange Land1991
… the United States … was the bourgeois nation par excellence, in which, it might be said, the values of trade were transmogrified into ideals of freedom. Robert Penn Warren, Democracy and Poetry, 1975
Noun For many, Nietzsche has always been a bugaboo, though some regard him as an heroic destroyer of idols, the invigorating voice of skepticism, and a revealer of those embarrassing actualities that the pieties and protestations of the bourgeois have customarily concealed. William H. Gass, Harper's, August 2005
With exceptions like Rousseau, the philosophes were elitists. They enlightened through noblesse oblige in company with noblemen, and often with a patronizing attitude toward the bourgeois as well as the common people. Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette, 1990
Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Adjective
Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas Film festivals: Toronto Release date: TBA Awards potential: The film is described as a survivalist thriller among a set of bourgeois European expats in the Galapagos in the 1920s. Joe Reid, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2024 More recently, a bourgeois elite, which feels besieged by the increasingly assertive have-nots, has begun casting around for sturdier leaders to replace its tainted idol, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose economic reforms, once much loved, are now widely regarded as populist sops to the poor. Pankaj Mishra, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2013
Noun
At Celine, Slimane sought to update the brand’s French bourgeois aesthetic for a younger audience, with ad campaigns featuring model Kaia Gerber in cropped tops and faded jeans, accessorised with a baseball cap and small, leather purse. Reuters, CNN, 2 Oct. 2024 With increasing agitation, Estela relates the family’s dark dramas and her own mounting feelings of detachment, creating an outsider’s portrait of bourgeois unravelling, deftly entwined with reflections on class and oppression. The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for bourgeois 

Word History

Etymology

Adjective and Noun

Middle French, from Old French burgeis townsman, from burc, borg town, from Latin burgus

First Known Use

Adjective

1761, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Time Traveler
The first known use of bourgeois was in 1604

Dictionary Entries Near bourgeois

bourgade

bourgeois

Bourgeois

Cite this Entry

“Bourgeois.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourgeois. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

bourgeois

1 of 2 adjective
bour·​geois ˈbu̇(ə)rzh-ˌwä How to pronounce bourgeois (audio)
bu̇rzh-ˈwä
1
: of or relating to townspeople or members of the middle class
2
: marked by a concern for comfort, wealth, and what is respectable

bourgeois

2 of 2 noun
plural bourgeois
-ˌwä(z),
-ˈwä(z)
: a person of the middle class of society
Etymology

Noun

from early French bourgeois "a resident of a town," from earlier burgeis (same meaning), from burc "town," from Latin burgus "fortified place" — related to burgess

Biographical Definition

Bourgeois 1 of 2

biographical name (1)

Bour·​geois bu̇rzh-ˈwä How to pronounce Bourgeois (audio)
ˈbu̇rzh-ˌwä
Léon-Victor-Auguste 1851–1925 French statesman

Bourgeois

2 of 2

biographical name (2)

Louise 1911–2010 American (French-born) sculptor
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