upper crust
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
The social elite, the highest social class.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhperkruhstSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʌpɚkˈɹʌst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
idiomaticusually with the
The social elite, the highest social class.
The class occupying the highest position in the social hierarchy
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see upper, crust. The topmost layer of a bread, pastry dish, or other item with a hardened coating.
adjective
Posh, upper-class; pertaining to the upper crust.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The social elite, the highest social class.
Used this way, upper crust is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.