Word Study
noblesse
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun noblesse has 2 senses
- noblesse(n = noun.state) nobility - the state of being of noble birth; Array is a kind of position, status
- noblesse(n = noun.group) Array - members of the nobility (especially of the French nobility); Array is a kind of aristocracy, nobility
has particulars: purple
CIDE DICTIONARY
noblesse, n. [F. noblesse. See Noble.].
- Dignity; greatness; noble birth or condition. Chaucer.
Spenser. B. Jonson. [1913 Webster] - The nobility; persons of noble rank collectively, including males and females. Dryden. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
noblesse, n. the class of nobles (esp. of a foreign country).
Idiom
noblesse oblige privilege entails responsibility.
Etymology
ME = nobility, f. OF (as NOBLE)
ROGET THESAURUS
noblesse
Nobility
N nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy, blood, pur sang, birth, high descent, order, quality, gentility, blue blood of Castile, ancien regime, high life, haute monde, upper classes, upper ten thousand, the four hundred, elite, aristocracy, great folks, fashionable world, peer, peerage, house of lords, house of peers, lords, lords temporal and spiritual, noblesse, noble, nobleman, lord, lordling, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku, don, donship, aristocrat, swell, three- tailed bashaw, gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate, gentry, gentlefolk, squirarchy, better sort magnates, primates, optimates, pantisocracy, king, atheling, prince, duke, marquis, marquisate, earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret, baronet, baronetcy, knight, knighthood, count, armiger, laird, signior, seignior, esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour, emir, ameer, scherif, sharif, effendi, wali, sahib, chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave, pasha, rajah, waldgrave, princess, begum, duchess, marchioness, countess, lady, dame, memsahib, Do$a, maharani, rani, personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark, notables, notabilities, celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar, big bug, big gun, great gun, gilded rooster, magni nominis umbra, every inch a king, noble, exalted, of rank, princely, titled, patrician, aristocratic, high-, well-born, of gentle blood, genteel, comme il faut, gentlemanlike, courtly, highly respectable, in high quarters, Adel sitzt im Gemuthe nicht im Gebluete, adelig und edel sind zweierlei, noblesse oblige.
For further exploring for "noblesse" in Webster Dictionary Online