gentility
gentility Lexical Profile
gentility Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Social superiority, refinement, or polite elegance as demonstrated by courteous manners, dignified behavior, and cultivated taste.
"Despite the family's reduced financial circumstances, their home retained an air of quiet gentility."
The state or quality of belonging to the gentry or aristocracy; high or noble birth.
"In nineteenth-century novels, marriage was often dictated by questions of wealth and gentility."
Word Nuance & Usage
While historically denoting noble birth and high social standing, in modern usage 'gentility' can carry a slightly ironic or critical undertone suggesting affected, overly polite, or pretentious refinement (as in 'shabby gentility').
• Rhymes for gentility
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French 'gentilite', from Latin 'gentilitas' (kinship, membership in the same clan or gens), which shifted in medieval Europe to mean noble birth and courtly manners.