Adjective: noble
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | nobler |
| Superlative | noblest |
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more noble |
| Superlative | most noble |
Sample Sentences
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He made a noble effort.
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He is a noble man who would never put his family in jeopardy.
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Korben, I realize you must be pretty mad at me. But I want you to know that I am fighting for a noble cause. / Yes, you're trying to save the world. I remember. [1997, 1:44:10 from the start, in The Fifth Element (Science Fiction / Action), →ISBN, →OCLC:]
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Wouldn't it be nobler by far to fight the good fight with all the weapons available: a firm bass voice, a wagging finger, the Bible? [2001 June 10, Walter Kim, “What Do You Tell The Kids?”, in TIME, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016, retrieved 16 Jul 2014:]
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a noble edifice
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He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts. [1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:]
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noble blood; a noble personage
Adjectives inflected like noble
serene,
severe,
secure,
sedate,
wheelie,
simple,
complete,
fulsome,
sprightlie,
discrete,
plosive,
bizarre,
brusque,
brittle,
wholesome,
sincere,
shystie,
loveable,
prophane,
terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. From Middle English noble, from Old French noble, borrowed from Latin nōbilis (“knowable, known, well-known, famous, celebrated, high-born, of noble birth, excellent”), from nōscere, gnōscere (“to know”).
2. False cognate of Arabic نبيل (nabīl). Displaced native Middle English athel, from Old English æþele. See: Latin Adjectives '
nōbilis'.