noble
- Having very good personal qualities like honesty, bravery, and a desire to help others.
- Belonging to a high social rank or a family with a title such as duke, queen, or lord.
In a sentence
- It was a noble act to give up his lunch so that the new student would have something to eat.
- The history book described the lives of noble families who lived in grand castles across Europe.
Usage note. 'Noble' can be used as a noun to mean a person of high rank (e.g., 'the nobles gathered at court'), so watch whether it is functioning as a describing word or a naming word in a sentence.
Where it comes from
English noble · entered English 13th c.
From Old French 'noble' and Latin 'nobilis,' meaning well-known, famous, or of high birth, derived from 'noscere,' meaning to know or recognize. The idea was that noble people were those widely recognized for their status or deeds. The word entered Middle English in the 13th century and has carried both the social rank meaning and the moral quality meaning since then.