Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality of being well-mannered; refinement.
- n. The condition of being born to the gentry.
- n. Persons of high social standing considered as a group.
- n. An attempt to convey or maintain the appearance of refinement and elegance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The quality or state of belonging to a certain gens, clan, or family; gentile relationship or stock.
- n. Noble or gentle birth.
- n. People of good birth; gentry.
- n. Gentile character; paganism; heathenism.
- n. The quality or state of being genteel; condition, appearance, or manner characteristic of polite society; genteel behavior; fashionableness; stylishness.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The state of being elegant, genteel, having good breeding, or being socially superior.
- n. The upper classes, the gentry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Good extraction; dignity of birth.
- n. The quality or qualities appropriate to those who are well born, as self-respect, dignity, courage, courtesy, politeness of manner, a graceful and easy mien and behavior, etc.; good breeding.
- n. rare The class in society who are, or are expected to be, genteel; the gentry.
- n. obsolete Paganism; heathenism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
Etymologies
- Middle English gentilete, nobility of birth, from Old French, from Latin gentīlitās, from gentīlis, of the same clan; see gentle. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I said that my country-folk in general had a great many admirable qualities, but at the same time a great many foibles, foremost amongst which last was a crazy admiration for what they called gentility, which made them sycophantic to their superiors in station, and extremely insolent to those whom they considered below them.”
“The generality of his countrymen are far more careful not to transgress the customs of what they call gentility, than to violate the laws of honour or morality.”
“The generality of his countrymen are far more careful not to transgress the customs of what they call gentility than to violate the laws of honour or morality.”
“As Maryjean Wall relates in "How Kentucky Became Southern," the state's familiar gentility is largely invented — and relatively recently at that.”
“I'm the sort of person who publishes my opinion on the internet ... you can't expect much in the way of gentility from the likes of me.”
“I say "gentility" -- but that is not exactly the word; for there is not the remotest trace of snobbishness in Henry James.”
“It is because the indefinable, but to those who can perceive it unmistakable, _aura_ of "gentility" -- in the true and not the debased sense -- is, at best, questionably present.”
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century
“Social intercourse disseminated these ideas among those to whom they were novel; where, previously, the highest motive to improvement had been a desire for convenience, the idea of gentility began to claim an influence; and some of the more moderate embellishments of life assumed the place of the mere necessaries.”
Western Characters or Types of Border Life in the Western States
“To belong to this class when you were at the £400 a year level was a queer business, for it meant that your gentility was almost purely theoretical.”
“But our gentility is a little self-conscious, for we live on the very frontier of a region, darker in complexion, which is far from scrupulous in deportment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gentility’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
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easy
creasy, over easy, free-and-easy, greasy, speakeasy, take it easy, weasy, lope, leisurely, wing chair, uncomplicated, luminous and 38 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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thricedotted's Words
schadenfreude, vanquish, calumny, obsequious, rhapsody, expostulate, promontory, bordello, quintessence, catharsis, recapitulation, myriad and 937 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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set 14
from 66 to 70
conciliatory, wean, intractable, fissure, recant, asunder, stodgy, piety, ambulatory, pharisaical, philology, primordial and 79 more...
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difficult-list21
gainsay, gall, galleon, gambit, gambol, gamely, gamut, gape, garish, garner, garnish, garrulous and 19 more...
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