noun
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respectability and polite good breeding
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affected politeness
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noble birth or ancestry
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people of noble birth
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gentility
1300–50; Middle English < Old French gentilite < Latin gentīlitāt- (stem of gentīlitās ), equivalent to gentīl ( is ) ( see gentle) + -itāt- -ity
Explanation
Anyone can be nice. Many people have good manners. But gentility is that rare kind of graciousness that is handed down from one elegant generation to the next. In the early 13th century, gentility described someone's social status, coming from the Old French word gentil, meaning "high-born, noble, of good family." Over time the word's meaning broadened to include those coming from a family whose members had a refined manner and an elegant way of expressing themselves — no title of nobility required, just as today anyone can be a gentleman (or woman).
Vocabulary lists containing gentility
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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Tuck Everlasting
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I had thought that Fairhope, which some call “Mayberry by the Bay,” was a place where real Southern gentility had survived.
From Slate ● May 4, 2026
Through invented details of clothing, Ms. Ng points out, Gainsborough could “subvert the rigid rules of British social class,” elevating sitters into gentility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
As Hemingway exclaimed in the voice of Jake Barnes, “It’s funny what a wonderful gentility you get in the bar of a big hotel.”
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
The story is in no sense a petition for the return of the monarchy but contrasts Old World gentility with the heartlessness of the surveillance state, culture against the assassination of culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
The fleet passes vast plantations laid upon the banks in unspeakable gentility.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
