bourgeois
/ˈbɔːʒ.wɑː//bʊɹʒˈwɑː/
bourgeois adjective: of or relating to the middle class (often derogatory), and their presumed overly conventional, conservative, and materialistic values.
Adjective
bourgeois (comparative more bourgeois, superlative most bourgeois)
- Of or relating to the middle class (often derogatory), and their presumed overly conventional, conservative, and materialistic values.
- bourgeois opinion
- It's impossible to tell the story of flamenco without talking about Lorca, who found in it a source of inspiration in a lifelong political-cultural-sexual struggle against bourgeois philistinism.2010 February 5, Mike Marqusee, “Flamenco's humane roots”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2023
- Synonyms:
- square
- Of or relating to the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.
- Of or relating to the capitalist class, (usually derogatory) the capitalist exploitation of the proletariat.
- Bogdanov did not explain what proletarian astronomy or integral calculus would be like, but he declared that if workers had difficulty in mastering the various sciences without long, specialized study it was chiefly because bourgeois scientists had erected artificial barriers of method and...1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
Noun (1)
bourgeois (usually uncountable, plural bourgeois)
- The middle class.
- An individual member of the middle class.
- A person of any class with bourgeois (i.e., overly conventional and materialistic) values and attitudes.
- An individual member of the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.
- A capitalist, (usually derogatory) an exploiter of the proletariat.
- Der Bourgeois sieht in seiner Frau ein bloßes Produktionsinstrument. Er hört, daß die Produktionsinstrumente gemeinschaftlich ausgebeutet werden sollen, und kann sich natürlich nichts anderes denken, als daß das Los der Gemeinschaftlichkeit die Weiber gleichfalls treffen wird.1977 [1848], Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (Marx-Engels-Werke; 4), page 478; English translation from Samuel Moore, transl., Manifesto of the Communist Party...
- Нет ничего характернее для буржуа, как перенесение черт современных порядков на все времена и народы.1967 [1894], Владимир Ленин [Vladimir Lenin], “Выпуск I”, in Что такое «друзья народа» и как они воюют против социал-демократов? (В. И. Ленин – Полное собрание сочинений; 1), page 153; English...
Verb
bourgeois (third-person singular simple present bourgeoises, present participle bourgeoising, simple past and past participle bourgeoised)
- To make bourgeois.
Noun (2)
UK/bəːˈdʒɔɪs/US/bəɹˈd͡ʒɔɪs/
bourgeois (uncountable)
Proper noun capitalized: Bourgeois
Bourgeois
- A surname from French.
bourgeois meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
bourgeois in Hindi
- bourgeois
- बुर्जुआ burjuā
bourgeois in Bengali
- bourgeois
- বুর্জোয়া burjōẇa
bourgeois in Malayalam
- bourgeois
- മൂരാച്ചി mūrācci
bourgeois in Kannada
- ಮಧ್ಯಮವರ್ಗ
More languagesFewer languages
- bourgeois in Punjabi
- ਬੁਰਜ਼ੁਆ burzuā
- bourgeois in Tagalog
- arianin, burgis
- bourgeois in Arabic
- بُرْجُوَازِيّ burjuwāziyy, بُرْجُوَازِيَّة burjuwāziyya
- bourgeois in Indonesian
- borjuis, orang borjuis, kelas menengah
- bourgeois in Persian
- بورژوایی buržovâyi, بورژوا buržovâ
Examples of bourgeois in a sentence
- It's about time we abandoned the bourgeois shibboleth that earning money makes you a better person.
- “passing without passport” or “Slaves of the bourgeois class, daily and hourly enslaved”) .
- Reds, sweeping aside the garbage of plutodemocracy, and dissolving the bourgeois parties, I remained stuck in France.
Synonyms of bourgeois
Forms of bourgeois
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more bourgeois |
| superlative | most bourgeois |
| alternative form | burgeois |
| Noun | |
| plural | bourgeois |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bourgeoises |
| present participle | bourgeoising |
| past participle | bourgeoised |
| past | bourgeoised |
Origin of bourgeois
Unadapted borrowing from French bourgeois (“a class of citizens who were wealthier members of the Third Estate”), from Old French burgeis (“town dweller”), from Frankish *burg, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold; city”) (whence borough). Doublet of burgess; compare also burgish.
From Middle English burjois, from French Bourgois, probably from Bourges (a city in France) + -ois (forming adjectives) but possibly from bourgeois above or after Jean de Bourgeois who worked as a printer in Rouen c. 1500.
Words formed from bourgeois
Questions about bourgeois
- What does bourgeois mean?
- Bourgeois means of or relating to the middle class (often derogatory), and their presumed overly conventional, conservative, and materialistic values.
- What is bourgeois in Hindi?
- Bourgeois in Hindi is बुर्जुआ (burjuā). See Bourgeois meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bourgeois?
- Bourgeois can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bourgeois?
- Bourgeois is pronounced /ˈbɔːʒ.wɑː/ (UK).
Words near bourgeois in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bourgeois (page history and authors); Bourgeois (page history and authors); बुर्जुआ (Hindi) (page history and authors); বুর্জোয়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); മൂരാച്ചി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); bourgeois (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬੁਰਜ਼ੁਆ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-bourgeois.ogg, en-us-bourgeois.ogg, en-au-bourgeois.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bourgeois.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bourgeois. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.