HOW TO PRONOUNCE
bourgeois
/bʊɹʒˈwɑ/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:49
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Stress WAH at the end.
The middle consonant sounds like the s in vision, and the final s is silent. First-syllable stress also occurs.
2 syllables · Stress on syllable 2
TRY SAYING
“The novel portrays a bourgeois family.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does bourgeois mean?
adjective
- Of or relating to the middle class (often derogatory), and their presumed overly conventional, conservative, and materialistic values.
- Of or relating to the capitalist class, (usually derogatory) the capitalist exploitation of the proletariat.
noun
- The middle class.
More meanings (8)
noun
- An individual member of the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.
- A capitalist, (usually derogatory) an exploiter of the proletariat.
- (rare) An individual member of the middle class.
- (derogatory) A person of any class with bourgeois (i.e., overly conventional and materialistic) values and attitudes.
- (dated) A size of type between brevier and long primer, standardized as 9-point.
verb
- To make bourgeois.
proper noun
- A surname from French.
adjective
- (historical) Of or relating to the bourgeoisie, the third estate of the French Ancien Regime.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/bʊɹʒˈwɑ/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Other dictionary pronunciations
/bʊɹʒˈwɑː//ˈbʊɹʒ.wɑː//bʊʒˈwɑː//ˈbʊʒ.wɑː//bəɹˈd͡ʒɔɪs/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
He was horrified by all the names which he saw in politics and in power, regarding them as vulgar and bourgeois.
Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones.
More book examples (3)
As always happens, the invention grew wilder and wilder through the very tameness of the bourgeois conventions from which it had to create.
She exposed to him the dogma of impersonality in such fine terms, that more than one bourgeois poet might profit by what she said.
Thus it is that during the Terror we see honest bourgeois and peaceful magistrates who were noted for their kindness turned into bloodthirsty fanatics.