the gentry

Definitions

People of good social position, specifically the class of people next below the nobility in birth or position.

In historical contexts, the class of landowners who ranked just below the aristocracy.

Examples

The gentry held most of the land and political power in the rural countryside during the eighteenth century.

She was born into the gentry, but she chose to abandon her privileged life to work as a teacher in the city.

Synonyms

the aristocracy the upper class the elite the nobility the landed class the highborn the patricians

Antonyms

the commoners the peasantry the working class the proletariat the masses the plebeians the lower class