gentleman
[ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.16 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man.
noun
A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armigerous man ranking below a knight.
name
A surname transferred from the nickname.
Example Sentences
- "I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed."
- "As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life."
- "She wanted to go see a movie called Gigi, which I was not too thrilled about. But being a gentleman, I bit my tongue and said, “Okay.”"
- "Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room."
- "Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself."
- "And when their ſcattered armie is ſubdu’d: And you march on their ſlaughtered carkaſſes, Share equally the gold that bought their liues, And liue like Gentlmen in Perſea, […]"
Etymology
From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: gentilman
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]