Underclass

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The poorest class of people in a given society.

    "The two are immediately caught up in a terrorist plot to rid the earth of its underclass, and this gives Nobby the chance to live out a James Bond fantasy of Englishness, with his own lager-swilling twist."

  2. 2
    the social class lowest in the social hierarchy wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    belonging to the lowest and least privileged social stratum wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
lower classlower classunderprivileged

Example

More examples

"Laborers in the emerging underclass who cater to the whims of the better-off are sometimes referred to as “wealth workers.""

Etymology

From under- + class.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.