Gentility

//ˌd͡ʒɛnˈtɪl.ə.ti// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being elegant, genteel, having good breeding, or being socially superior. uncountable

    "1967-1969, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure He is the violence and fear of the boy of my stories, yet the gentility and sensitivity of poetry."

  2. 2
    elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression wordnet
  3. 3
    The upper classes, the gentry. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
breedingancestryappropriatenessaristocracyaristocraticalnessbecomingness

Example

More examples

"1967-1969, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure He is the violence and fear of the boy of my stories, yet the gentility and sensitivity of poetry."

Etymology

From Old French gentilité.

Related phrases

upper class

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.