nobility

UK/nəʊˈbɪlɪti/US/noʊˈbɪlɪti/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,549 of 15,258leans written

Nobility is the class holding hereditary titles, or greatness of character. The French nobility, nobility of spirit, a certain nobility.

The two senses were the same claim once, since the class was assumed to have the character, and the second survived the first. In Britain the nobility is strictly the peerage, and the gentry below it held no title at all.

Definitions of nobility

1nounnobilityThe class holding hereditary titles, or greatness of character.B2+
“Dukes, earls and other members of the nobility gathered at the palace.”

nobility is a class.

Where it comes from

Latin nobilitas comes from nobilis, well known or highborn.

Proto-Indo-European
*ǵneh₃-
Latin
nobilitas
Old French
nobilité
English, today
nobility

From Old French nobilité, from Latin nobilitas. Equivalent to noble + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

nobility in the wild

The Swedish nobility (Swedish: Adeln, or Ridderskapet och Adeln, lit.
Swedish nobility
Since 1974, the monarch is only permitted to confer titles of nobility on members of the royal family.
Swedish nobility
Traditionally, it denotes the titled rank within the nobility above Ritter (knight) and Edler (nobility without a specific title) and below Graf (count or earl).
Freiherr
As those who lived on the nobles' land had obligations to the nobility, the nobility had obligations to their people, including protection at the least.
Noblesse oblige
Pre-Soviet Russia shared with other countries the concept that nobility connotes a status or social category rather than a title.
Russian nobility

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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

noble

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