ennoble
Americanverb (used with object)
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to elevate in degree, excellence, or respect; dignify; exalt.
a personality ennobled by true generosity.
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to confer a title of nobility on.
verb
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to make noble, honourable, or excellent; dignify; exalt
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to raise to a noble rank; confer a title of nobility upon
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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ennoblementnoun
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ennoblernoun
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ennoblingadjective
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unennobledadjective
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unennoblingadjective
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ennoblinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ennoblesimple
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ennoblessimple
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have ennobledperfect
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has ennobledperfect
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am ennoblingprogressive
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are ennoblingprogressive
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is ennoblingprogressive
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have been ennoblingperfect progressive
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has been ennoblingperfect progressive
Past
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ennobledsimple
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had ennobledperfect
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was ennoblingprogressive
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were ennoblingprogressive
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had been ennoblingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing ennoble
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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"A Place to Call Home" by Scott Bittle and Jonathan Rochkind
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The Prince
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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.
See Examples For:
The author makes clear that suffering, despite popular mythology, typically does not ennoble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
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
For Hegel, as Hägglund reads him, a religious institution is really just a community that has come together to ennoble “a governing set of norms—a shared understanding of what counts as good and just.”
From The New Yorker ● May 13, 2019
Ah, generous Elinor! thought Juliet, tears of gratitude glistening in her eyes: what a mixture of contrasting qualities sully, and ennoble your character in turn!
From The Wanderer (Volume 3 of 5) or, Female Difficulties by Burney, Fanny
Bel Powley and Liev Schreiber breathe life and tenderness into Miep and Otto's partnership, and Powley ennobles Miep with a range of emotions including a plausible measure of humor.
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2023
We’d like to believe that suffering instructs and ennobles; that our grief, fear and pain increases our sympathy for the grief, fear and pain of others.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 6, 2020
Rubenhold ennobles five Victorian-era women who were best known as victims and, in doing so, rebukes the bloody fixations of the true-crime genre.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 19, 2019
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
They have joined, and we are proud that they have joined, for this is a cause that ennobles every mother's son who fights for it.
From One Day at a Time and Other Talks on Life and Religion by Alexander, Arch.
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
Patriotism was ennobling, self-sacrifice was reflexive; heroism was rewarded, and everybody was proudly in this fight together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
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
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.
