1. A class of persons distinguished by high birth or rank and in Great Britain including dukes and duchesses, marquises and marchionesses, earls and countesses, viscounts and viscountesses, and barons and baronesses: "The old English nobility of office made way for the Norman nobility of faith and landed wealth" (Winston S. Churchill).
2. Noble rank or status: Congress may not grant titles of nobility.
3. The state or quality of being exalted in character.

[Middle English nobilite, the quality of being noble, from Old French, from Latin nōbilitās, from nōbilis, noble. See noble.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.