gentry

UK/ˈd͡ʒɛntɹi/US/ˈd͡ʒɛntɹi/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,327 of 15,258leans written

The gentry are the class just below the nobility. The landed gentry, a member of the gentry, country gentry.

In England they held land and local power without titles, and the distinction from the aristocracy was legal rather than about wealth — a gentleman had no seat in the Lords. Jane Austen's world is almost entirely this class.

Definitions of gentry

1noungentryThe class just below the nobility.C1
“The local gentry lived in large country houses and rode out to hunt.”

gentry is a social class.

Where it comes from

Old French genterie comes from gent, well-born, from Latin gentilis, of the same family. Gentle and genteel are relatives.

Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Old French
genterie — noble people collectively; nobility of character or manners
English, today
gentry

Built from

gent · Old French — well-born

From Old French genterie (“noble people collectively; nobility of character or manners”), from gent (“well-born”) + -erie.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

gentry in the wild

The British element of the wider European class of gentry, while part of Britain's nobility and usually armigers, the gentry ranked below the British peerage in social status.
Landed gentry
Nevertheless, their economic base in land was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers.
Landed gentry
The Colonial American use of gentry was not common.
American gentry
In North America, the planter class formed part of the American gentry.
Planter class

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the gent family

gentry

gentry — used about once every 2,529 pages · #7,327 · point at the bar for the others

← Vocabulary

gentry

UK/ˈd͡ʒɛntɹi/US/ˈd͡ʒɛntɹi/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,327 of 15,258leans written

The gentry are the class just below the nobility. The landed gentry, a member of the gentry, country gentry.

Definitions of gentry

1noungentryThe class just below the nobility.C1
“The local gentry lived in large country houses and rode out to hunt.”

gentry is a social class.

Where it comes from

Old French genterie comes from gent, well-born, from Latin gentilis, of the same family. Gentle and genteel are relatives.

Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Old French
genterie — noble people collectively; nobility of character or manners
English, today
gentry

Built from

gent · Old French — well-born

From Old French genterie (“noble people collectively; nobility of character or manners”), from gent (“well-born”) + -erie.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

gentry in the wild

The British element of the wider European class of gentry, while part of Britain's nobility and usually armigers, the gentry ranked below the British peerage in social status.
Landed gentry
Nevertheless, their economic base in land was often similar, and some of the landed gentry were wealthier than some peers.
Landed gentry
The Colonial American use of gentry was not common.
American gentry
In North America, the planter class formed part of the American gentry.
Planter class

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the gent family

gentry

gentry — used about once every 2,529 pages · #7,327 · point at the bar for the others