dignity
/ˈdɪɡnɪti/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.02 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity."
- "Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being."
- "Historically, dignity has been ascribed to an elite group, but human dignity with reference to humanity and the human family has democratized dignity. […]. The idea of dignity as rank was carried over in Christian doctrine […]."
- "The reception room was sacred to the dead wife. Her shiny portrait hung upon the wall - similar, doubtless, in all respects to the one which would be pasted on her tombstone. A little piece of black drapery had been tacked above the frame to lend a dignity to woe. But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet."
- "Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held."
- "The presence of an attorney from Washington, he wrote, "would lend dignity to the proceedings," and it also would "remove the questions of local prejudices and faction from the picture and would have a very fine effect upon the jury.""
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *dḱ-nos, from *deḱ- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign. Doublet of dainty. In this sense, displaced native Old English weorþsċipe, which became Modern English worship. It also displaced native Old English hād (“honor, dignity”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *deḱ-, dignyte, dignité, dignitās, *degnos, *dḱ-nos