How to Use upper-class in a Sentence

upper-class

1 of 2 adjective
  • The first episode, for example, delves into how the 1% tends to downplay their upper-class status.
    Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2023
  • Still, many middle and upper-class Iranian women chose not to wear the hijab.
    Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 May 2023
  • Even in the 1970s, a large, working-class family was met with a degree of wariness that middle- and upper-class families rarely are.
    Nell Frizzell, Vogue, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Ann is his childhood sweetheart, but upper-class Helen falls for him, too – and her mother has designs on Artie’s wealth.
    Owen Thomas, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Feb. 2024
  • While the 5-year-old royal is known for sporting shorts with knee socks, the classic look for upper-class boys in Britain, Louis has recently started to wear long pants.
    Stephanie Petit, Peoplemag, 25 Dec. 2023
  • This brings up the next point: despite modern updates, all the women were white and from suburban, upper-class backgrounds.
    Essence, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Stock portfolios and home prices have soared, giving middle- and upper-class households an extra boost.
    Abha Bhattarai, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2024
  • Even in Calabasas alone, there’s such a disparity between much more middle-class homes and then very, very upper-class ones.
    Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Aug. 2023
  • Morton was born into an upper-class family in England around 1579 and later worked as a lawyer.
    Colleen Connolly, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Oct. 2023
  • Edith Wharton's Pulitzer-winning novel sings on the page, the author's deliciously wry prose painting the world of late-1800s, upper-class New York in vivid detail.
    and Kevin Jacobsen, EW.com, 30 July 2024
  • Drawing was fundamental to the training of artists and the education of upper-class children.
    Karen Wilkin, WSJ, 8 Dec. 2023
  • Although Ings has made a career playing upper-class British rogues, his own background is a little different.
    Imogen West-Knights, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2024
  • Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw stones and other objects at officers who had stationed themselves on a main avenue of an upper-class district.
    Compiled Bydemocrat-Gazette Stafffrom Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 30 July 2024
  • It was originally considered a form of protection for upper-class citizens in large cities like Paris, but earned a large following in the sporting world.
    Kade Krichko, Outside Online, 2 Aug. 2024
  • Paddy, ever the upper-class Englishman, dressed with nonchalant elegance in jeans, crisp shirts, and crewneck sweaters.
    Plum Sykes, Vogue, 23 Apr. 2024
  • But the market for upper-class people in the Bay Area willing to overpay for laundry rather than doing it themselves wound up being too small, and competition from mom-and-pop laundromats was too fierce.
    Hank Tucker, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
  • While many upper-class households got raises to keep up with the pace of inflation, middle-class families didn’t see the same wage increases—contributing to the already shrinking middle class.
    Chloe Berger, Fortune, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Michael works as a fixer at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, which means that his salary hinges on fulfilling the less glamorous — and occasionally less lawful — needs of the firm’s upper-class clientele.
    Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024
  • Moviegoing became a regular activity for her upper-class family through the unease of World War II.
    Mayukh Sen, Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2023
  • The bluesy romantic ballad depicts a committed, if unlikely, love story between an upper-class woman and a working-class man.
    Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Moreover, for a multitude of reasons, including biases in IQ tests, a disproportionate number of those diagnosed—and helped—have been white and middle- to upper-class.
    Sarah Carr, Scientific American, 16 Nov. 2023
  • Our Founding Fathers probably wore makeup at some point—in eighteenth-century America, upper-class men and women both did.
    Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2024
  • Coss had a vision that part of what was going to make their lives better were middle- and upper-class people meeting and working with them through professional services such as fitness, a turning point that the United States had not previously seen.
    Gregg Goldstein, Variety, 21 Jan. 2024
  • Poaching in the region is driven by a high demand for wild meat, which is considered to be a delicacy or status symbol of middle and upper-class urban consumers in Cambodia, the report noted.
    Kathleen Magramo, CNN, 22 June 2023
  • Given the current distribution of power, working-class movements need upper-class patrons.
    Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • It was politically empowered upper-class residents of high-rises near the reserve who relished the green view but panicked if a leopard so much as showed up on a security camera.
    Vidya Athreya, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2023
  • In the documentary, Williams provides rare home video footage and candid interviews to detail the family’s unprecedented gate-crashing in the 1990s of a predominately white, upper-class sport.
    Manori Ravindran, Variety, 17 July 2023
  • No set curriculum existed, and the only subjects considered necessary for middle- and upper-class girls were needlework, reading, writing, etiquette, music and a bit of arithmetic.
    E.r. Zarevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Mar. 2024
  • These skills were useful to build the American economy with free labor that further enriched already wealthy aristocratic and upper-class Europeans.
    Julie Kratz, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Freemasonry was established early in the Thirteen Colonies and soon became an integral part of American upper-class society.
    Colin Dickey, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2023
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upper class

2 of 2 noun
  • The upper class eats steak at the Four Seasons at Christmas.
    Alfred Lubrano, Philly.com, 15 Dec. 2017
  • The author, dubbed Lady Whistledown, spills all the tea to the shock of the upper class and the glee of the audience.
    Lauren Hill, chicagotribune.com, 22 Jan. 2021
  • Three-to-four-year-olds are in the baby class, four-to-five-year-olds in the middle class, and five-to-six-year-olds in the upper class.
    Annabelle Timsit, Quartz, 16 Jan. 2020
  • This Court that loves the upper classes has its roots in Richard Nixon’s election in 1968.
    Adam Cohen, Time, 3 Mar. 2020
  • Looks a lot like welfare for the middle and upper classes to me.
    Byline, BostonGlobe.com, 1 June 2018
  • The monarch threw grand daytime soirees to mingle with Britain's upper class.
    Elise Taylor, Vogue, 22 May 2019
  • Maybe the answer is not that all upper class cabins should be child-free.
    Cnt Editors, CNT, 21 Sep. 2017
  • Guy Ritchie has another film in the works that doubles down on the British upper class.
    Alex Ritman, Variety, 13 May 2024
  • The city of Luxor sits to the east of the Nile, and Egyptians from the ruling and upper classes were buried to the west as a sign of reverence.
    National Geographic, 9 Sep. 2017
  • Some neighborhoods in Brooklyn are now home to the upper class.
    Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
  • The posset was actually consumed by the wealthy and those in the upper class.
    Michelle Darrisaw, Southern Living, 5 Nov. 2023
  • Add to that the fact that large-scale entrepreneurship tends to expand wealth among those who are already in the upper class.
    Malaika Jabali, Essence, 19 June 2022
  • Shows such as Dynasty were some of the first to pave the way for series that center on the drama and spectacle of the upper class.
    Bianca Betancourt, Harper's BAZAAR, 12 Aug. 2021
  • All these high places, the upper class or the bourgeoisie … all of this Western construct is falling apart.
    Catherine Annie Hollingsworth, miamiherald, 3 June 2018
  • Nail art has been around since ancient Egypt, when members of the upper class dyed their nails with henna.
    Arabelle Sicardi, Harper's BAZAAR, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Among women of the upper class with means, Lister was hardly alone in forging her own kind of life.
    Jeanna Kadlec, Longreads, 7 June 2019
  • This is the story of the Trenchard family, who are part of the nouveau riche in London’s upper class.
    ELLE, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Before that, novels were about the upper classes, or the bourgeoisie, but never the people who work or the poor.
    John Timpane, Philly.com, 8 Jan. 2018
  • In declaring war on the upper class that made him, Carlson joined a long, volatile lineage of combatants against the élite.
    Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
  • They were embraced by the upper class and later, in the 19th century, were adopted by the French Navy in the form of the iconic Breton-striped top.
    Katharine K. Zarrella, WSJ, 31 Jan. 2019
  • Those who well dressed and seemed like belonged to an upper class and dominant caste were not singled out.
    Priyali Sur, CNN, 15 Apr. 2020
  • Washlets once again made bidets something for the upper classes.
    Maria Teresa Hart, The Atlantic, 18 Mar. 2018
  • As a result, the upper class turned to shiny, reflective glass to decorate their homes.
    Jacob Livesay, USA TODAY, 5 July 2022
  • By then, the British upper classes had moved on to French luxuries like truffles and oysters.
    Matt Giles, Longreads, 1 Sep. 2017
  • There were four types—the paipo, used by children; the alaia, which commoners were allowed to use; the kiko‘o, for the upper class; and the olo, reserved for royalty.
    Jennifer Billock, Smithsonian, 12 Aug. 2019
  • At the front of the train are the upper class, people like Jennifer Connelly‘s Melanie Cavill, head of hospitality.
    Nick Romano, EW.com, 20 July 2019
  • Perhaps this is the impact for change — upper class white people dying.
    Robert Klemko, Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2023
  • Amid a transitional era for college football, that’s a win for the little guys of this sport ruled by an upper class.
    Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 31 Dec. 2021
  • Five people in the room, as the upper class, were each handed a single square of toilet paper, the equivalent of a million euros.
    Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2024
  • The first Olympic sports for women are sports like tennis and golf which, at the time, were really associated with the white upper class.
    Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 1 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'upper-class.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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