Humility

//hjuːˈmɪlɪti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The characteristic of being humble; humbleness in character and behavior. uncountable, usually

    "She had established a character for humility, discretion, noiselessness and religion which Mrs. Piper greatly regretted losing."

  2. 2
    a disposition to be humble; a lack of false pride wordnet
  3. 3
    a humble feeling wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
humblenessacquiescencealtruismamenabilityback seatbashfulness

Example

More examples

"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress."

Etymology

From Middle English humilite, from Old French (h)umilité, from Latin humilitas (“lowness, meanness, baseness, in Late Latin humility”), from humilis (“low, lowly, humble, earth”). Equivalent to humble + -ity, with /mb/ reduced to /m/ (compare plumbing). Displaced native Old English ēaþmōdnes. Doublet of omertà.

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