nobility

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

High rank

Nouns

1. nobility, aristocracy, quality, gentility, rank, condition, title, distinction, [blue] blood, [high] birth, high degree; pedigree, lineage. See posterity, ancestry, superiority, pride, fashion.

2. the nobility, aristocracy, peerage, upper classes, haut monde, elite, noblesse, gentry, fashionable world, beau monde, high society, crème de la crème, the upper ten thousand.

3. noble[man], lord, peer, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, don, aristocrat, gentleman, patrician. Slang, swell, nob, toff (Brit.).

4. king, emperor, prince, crown prince, duke, marquis, marquess, earl, viscount, baron[et], knight, chevalier, squire, count, laird, thane, seignior, esquire, kaiser, czar, margrave; emir, sheik, rajah, maharajah, sultan. See

authority.

5. queen, empress, princess, begum, rani, ranee, maharani, sultana, czarina; duchess, marchioness, countess; lady, dame.

6. personage, crème de la crème, notable, celebrity, socialite; First Families. Slang, upper crust, Four Hundred. See importance, repute.

Verbs — ennable, confer a title (on), knight, dub, esquire; wear the purple.

Adjectives — noble, exalted, princely, royal, lordly, titled, patrician, aristocratic, wellborn, highborn, of gentle blood, of family, genteel, blue-blooded.

Quotations — Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order (Edmund Burke), Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior, and are disgraced by the inferior (G. B. Shaw), When I want a peerage, I shall buy it like an honest man (Lord Northcliffe), An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off (Nancy Mitford), I think the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me (Shakespeare), Royalty is the gold filling in a mouthful of decay (John Osborne), Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown (Shakespeare), What is aristocracy? A corporation of the best, of the bravest (Thomas Carlyle).

Antonyms, see populace.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Magnificence]

Syn. grandeur, majesty, greatness; see dignity 1 , magnificence .

2. [Aristocracy; usually used with the]

Syn. ruling class, gentry, peerage; see aristocracy , royalty , society 3 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. eminence prominence, fame, rank, aristocracy, pedigree, peerage, upper class, noblesse, blue blood, elite, ruling class, First Family, king, queen, emperor, empress, prince, princess, marquis, earl, duke, lord, viscount, baron, baroness, knight, chevalier, squire, count, countess.

2. integrity gentility, honor, morality, virtue, chivalry, character, moral fiber. see ancestry, aristocracy, royalty

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. People of the highest social level: aristocracy, blue blood, creme de la creme, elite, flower, gentility, gentry, patriciate, quality, society, upper class, who's who. Informal: upper crust. See OVER. 2. Noble rank or status by birth: birth, blood, blue blood, noblesse. See KIN, OVER.