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Get Fancy With Genteel
The word genteel has some familiar English relatives, including gentle, gentrify, and gentility. All come from the Latin noun gens, used to refer to a group of related people. That word's plural, gentes, was used in Roman times to classify the people of the world, particularly non-Romans. Similarly, the English gentile refers to people who are not Jewish, or who don’t follow other specific religions. Many non-English words come from gens as well, including the Spanish gente, meaning “people.” To say gens has made its mark would be putting it gently.
Examples of genteel in a Sentence
Don Riddell, CNN Money, 7 Apr. 2025
But underneath this genteel surface are bitter divisions that erupted just as the institution struggled to recover from the worst event ever to happen on its campus, when Salman Rushdie was nearly killed onstage by a knife-wielding jihadist in August 2022.
—Christopher Maag, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025
Visitors will find more than arcadian Constable landscapes and genteel Gainsborough portraits of aristocrats.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
There will be others who feel this level of passion is good for a sport that can be too genteel for some people’s tastes.
—Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 24 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for genteel
Cite this Entry
“Genteel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genteel. Accessed 19 Apr. 2025.
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genteel
adjective
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