ennoble

American  

[en-noh-buhl] / ɛnˈnoʊ bəl /

verb (used with object)

• ennobles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ennobled,
  past participle,  past
• ennobling
  present participle

1. to elevate in degree, excellence, or respect; dignify; exalt.

   a personality ennobled by true generosity.

2. to confer a title of nobility on.

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ennoble British  

/ ɪˈnəʊbəl /

verb

1. to make noble, honourable, or excellent; dignify; exalt

2. to raise to a noble rank; confer a title of nobility upon

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ennoblement
  noun
• ennobler
  noun
• ennobling
  adjective
• unennobled
  adjective
• unennobling
  adjective
• ennoblingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• ennobling
  present
• ennobled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ennoble
  simple
• ennobles
  simple
• have ennobled
  perfect
• has ennobled
  perfect
• am ennobling
  progressive
• are ennobling
  progressive
• is ennobling
  progressive
• have been ennobling
  perfect progressive
• has been ennobling
  perfect progressive

Past

• ennobled
  simple
• had ennobled
  perfect
• was ennobling
  progressive
• were ennobling
  progressive
• had been ennobling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ennoble
  simple
• will have ennobled
  perfect
• will be ennobling
  progressive
• will have been ennobling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ennoble

1425–75; late Middle English ennobelen < Middle French, Old French ennoblir. See en- ¹, noble

Explanation

To ennoble someone is to make them a Lord or a Baroness — to bestow a noble title upon them. The Queen of England has the power to ennoble people, turning Paul McCartney into Sir Paul McCartney, for example. One way to use the verb ennoble is to mean, literally, "make someone a noble or a member of the nobility." It can also mean "bestow or lend dignity to" or "make dignified." You could say, "Reading great books ennobles the mind," or "Treating others with kindness ennobles a person." Ennoble comes from the Old French ennoblir, from the prefix en-, "put in," and the Latin root nobilis, "excellent, superior, or splendid."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ennoble ennobles ennobled ennobling

Framing the Declaration as more than a manifesto establishing a new nation, Coolidge described it as “everywhere to ennoble humanity.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

What Gadsby did was give the audience permission — moral permission — to turn their backs on what challenged them, and to ennoble a preference for comfort and kitsch.

From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2023

Fort Bragg in North Carolina would be christened Fort Liberty as a reminder of the values that ennoble military service.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2022

The number of people who, out of civic generosity, think that they can enlarge or ennoble their selves by giving their energies to a good larger than themselves?

From Salon ● May 27, 2019

Does not Christianity stimulate the mind to struggle against difficulties, ennoble the struggle by investing it with the dignity of a duty, and render the duty delightful by the hope of a heavenly reward?

From Old Wine and New Occasional Discourses by Joseph Cross

Nothing can quite convey the devastation of those who knew and loved “the fallen,” a euphemism that ennobles their sacrifice but also fails to capture the awfulness of violent death.

From Washington Post ● May 29, 2022

Yet in accordance with James Baldwin's dictum that suffering ennobles nobody, we must recognize that pragmatism, more than empathy, powered their relationship.

From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2022

This is what Italy do, a way of playing that ennobles and vindicates every other team’s victories.

From The Guardian ● May 7, 2020

For it must not be presumed that mores necessarily grow worse from knowing the moral sciences, which teach the virtues, indeed, there is not the slightest doubt that moral education amends and ennobles them.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2019

Art civilizes because it enlightens, develops, strengthens, ennobles.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll

Better to live in a world where freedom of expression is ubiquitous than one where the “truth” is told to us by a few ennobled journalists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026

When her husband was ennobled some years earlier, she was entitled to be called Lady Kinnock - but it was a title she never used.

From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2023

And that is the thing about generative AI and language learning models: They exist only by feeding on the ennobled human soul.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2023

And they’re very different from the ennobled peasants in popular genre paintings by artists like the Le Nain brothers in France or cheery laborers by Dutch artist Johannes Lingelbach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2023

These opportunities, therefore, made these men successful, and their outstanding virtue enabled them to recognize that opportunity, whereby their nation was ennobled and became extremely happy.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

His balding head’s scraggly hair—in contrast to the wigs worn by just about every Frenchman at the time, no matter the social class—is both ennobling and a bit enfeebling, like an aging but distinguished mane.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

Her stoicism is all the more ennobling, given how much it costs her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025

It adds an ennobling air to their real function, which is propaganda.

From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2023

Philanthropy, the ennobling pursuit of the rich and famous, is in the headlines.

From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2022

And this confession made his romantic gestures all the more ennobling.

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan