How to Use gentility in a Sentence

gentility

noun
  • Education was considered a mark of gentility.
  • But most people who have met him are struck by his charm and gentility.
    Bob Johnstone, WIRED, 1 Feb. 1994
  • Riley knows how to spin a yarn built on faith and trust, that lilts along with the gentility and reserve of her characters.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 30 June 2020
  • That sort of gentility is not unusual for this stage of the campaign.
    Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2023
  • Though the Looff carousel remains splendidly vivid, the rest of Slater Park projects a shabby gentility, a drowsy grandeur.
    Michael Tortorello, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2017
  • But despite that, the atmosphere is one of gentility and calm.
    Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 5 Jan. 2023
  • My first meal in Dublin was at the Saddle Room, and, with in its calm and gentility, nothing could have cured my jet lag better with food of such a high caliber.
    John Mariani, Forbes, 6 June 2022
  • Margaret is the picture of gentility, yet her dagger drips with stony blood.
    Sam Sacks, WSJ, 28 May 2021
  • The senatorial gentility of yore has, at times, given way to the rancor and harsh words of the Twitter age.
    Martine Powers, Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2017
  • Part of what drives him, Kyrgios has said, is to prevail over all the naysayers and critics who view him as the antithesis of the sport’s mythic gentility.
    New York Times, 6 July 2022
  • In a world of glossy brand catalogs, these illustrations are a breath of fresh air, gentility and wit.
    Alexander Freeling, Robb Report, 24 Nov. 2021
  • There wasn’t really much in the way of gentility, of course, but the passion and fire of the playing rendered that unnecessary.
    Gary Graff, Billboard, 17 Mar. 2018
  • And with that came a professionalism that wasn’t a great match for the show’s air of sportsmanlike gentility.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 June 2019
  • In that spirit of gentility, Beboe’s wares could pass for the latest French fragrance on sale at Bergdorf Goodman.
    Alex Williams, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2017
  • There was already that happening during the Obama years — not so much under George W. Bush, who now seems like some kind of paragon of old-world gentility.
    Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, 19 May 2021
  • For all his gentility, Mr. Freed could be acid in his observations.
    Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2022
  • The neighborhood, once a bastion of black gentility, was beginning its decades-long descent into gangs, drugs, no jobs and bad schools.
    Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek, 15 Apr. 2015
  • Elsewhere, in the walled-off grounds and home of a wealthy developer, a wedding is taking place, and the guests arrive bearing envelopes of cash and the gentility of those protected by their wealth.
    BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2021
  • This idyll was founded on an illusion of white gentility.
    Michael Lapointe, The New Yorker, 20 May 2021
  • Wain, his mother and five sisters solvent, though in circumstances far reduced from their gentility prior to the death of Wain’s father.
    Jessica Kiang, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2021
  • But this veneer of gentility has always masked ugly truths.
    Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 24 Nov. 2020
  • At 10 in the morning, the teeming fluorescent atmosphere brought to mind an OTB, minus the gentility.
    Mark Rozzo, Town & Country, 1 Nov. 2012
  • But his throwback wardrobe was a relic of Southern gentility that set him apart as an observer rather than participant in the follies of his time.
    James R. Hagerty, WSJ, 15 May 2018
  • America's neighbor to the north is famed for what might be described as a distinctly un-Trumpian politeness and gentility.
    Joel Mathis, The Week, 14 Sep. 2022
  • The contrasts between the first Mrs. de Winter and the second are emphasized throughout: the second, gentle, fair, and meek; the first, dark-haired and dramatic, with a cold gentility that endeared her to Danvers over the years.
    Rachel Krause, refinery29.com, 21 Oct. 2020
  • Yet, thanks to Cloud, who brought gentleness and gentility to the role, the character could never be easily written off, or out, as a gangland plot device.
    Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Danforth, who teaches English at Rhode Island College, has a perfect ear for both eras: the strict gentility of 1902 and the rapid-fire patter of today’s content creators.
    Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2020
  • Born and raised in North Carolina, Lynch still projects the steely gentility that Norling identified decades earlier.
    Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2017
  • But in an American context, of course, politeness and gentility are racialized as white.
    Morgan Jerkins, Longreads, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Smith writes about yardbird intellects, refugees from good taste and urban ease; her characters are shabby-genteel with the gentility knob turned down pretty low.
    Dwight Garner, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gentility.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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