underclass

noun

un·​der·​class ˈən-dər-ˌklas How to pronounce underclass (audio)
: the lowest social stratum usually made up of disadvantaged minority groups

Examples of underclass in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The welfare recipients themselves were regarded mainly as a budding underclass—unable to function in the economy and a threat to social stability. Michael Bernick, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024 After Stalin’s death in 1953, expressing discomfort with one’s place in the Communist paradise was no longer necessarily fatal, and a new underclass of pariahs—many poets and scientists among them—became a subversive force. Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 13 Dec. 2024 Rodrigo Zarazaga, a Jesuit priest and a political scientist who works in one of the capital’s toughest villas miseria, says that a new youth underclass is growing there—individualistic, entrepreneurial, and cut off from the formal economy and from the unions traditionally tied to Peronism. Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024 Muqtada al-Sadr was an influential national figure, Sadrist politicians formed a central component of the Iraqi government, and the movement was the near-exclusive political vehicle for Iraq’s burgeoning Shia underclass. Nicholas Krohley, Foreign Affairs, 26 Aug. 2015 See all Example Sentences for underclass 

Word History

First Known Use

1918, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of underclass was in 1918

Dictionary Entries Near underclass

Cite this Entry

“Underclass.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/underclass. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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