Meaning & use
nobleman
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Meaning
nouncountable
A man who belongs to the highest social class and often holds a title such as duke, earl or baron.
Grammar: Countable and irregular in the plural: one nobleman, two noblemen.
Patterns
- a wealthy nobleman
- a nobleman from somewhere
- the son of a nobleman
A wealthy nobleman paid for the new church.
Her father was a nobleman with lands in the north.
The castle was built by a nobleman in the fifteenth century.
Word forms
| plural | noblemen |
|---|
Common combinations
- a wealthy nobleman
- A wealthy nobleman commissioned the painting.
- a young nobleman
- The young nobleman was sent to study abroad.
- the son of a nobleman
- He was the son of a nobleman but had little money.
- a local nobleman
- A local nobleman gave the land to the village.
- a nobleman's estate
- They visited a nobleman's estate in the countryside.
Synonyms and how they differ
- aristocrat
- A neutral, general word for a member of the upper class; nobleman is more old-fashioned and always refers to a man with a title.
- peer
- A peer is a member of the nobility in Britain, especially one with the right to sit in the House of Lords; nobleman is wider and can describe nobility anywhere.
- lord
- Lord is a title or a way of addressing such a man; nobleman describes his social position rather than being a form of address.
Opposites
Word family
- noblewoman noun
- A woman of the same high social class.
- noble noun
- A general word for a person of high rank, male or female.
- nobility noun
- The whole class of nobles, or the quality of being noble.
- noble adjective
- Belonging to the nobility, or having fine personal qualities.
Commonly confused: nobleman or noble? nobleman or Nobel?
nobleman vs noble
As a noun, noble means any person of high rank and can be male or female; nobleman is only for a man.
nobleman vs Nobel
Nobel is the surname linked to the Nobel Prizes; nobleman has nothing to do with prizes and is spelled with one l in the middle.
Practice
Which sentence uses nobleman correctly?
Choose one answer.
The plural of nobleman is noblemen, formed by changing -man to -men. Option 0 adds -s, which is wrong for this word. Option 2 keeps the singular form with a plural number. Option 3 invents a form that does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “nobleman”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.