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aristocrat

aristocrat

38 6.5
A person from the highest social class, often by birth or title
  • noun
  • /ˌærɪˈstɒkræt/
translation icon : aristócrata
  • In Athens, she is an aristocrat; her husband is a powerful rhetorician.
  • English aristocrats
  • French aristocrats
  • young aristocrats

He'd look like an aristocrat from a ASEAN painting.

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Examples

  • You have the aristocrats who on the surface, the ones who are doing well, they're the politicians and the generals.

  • As an aristocrat, he inherited great wealth and a title from his family.

  • When you look at me, do you see an aristocrat?

  • Yeah, but... where are we going to find an aristocrat?

  • The blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all.

  • And all of these heroes are aristocrats in the traditional sense of the word.

  • Almost half its officers, all aristocrats, have fled France to escape the Revolution.

  • Thus, the American wife, like the aristocrats of the past, enters marriage with practical considerations in mind.

    Academic text (1996)
  • In czarist Russia, aristocrats and educated people spoke French, frequently as their only language.

    Academic text (1998)
  • My old weakness for aristocrats overcame me, and I sought his gaze.

    Fiction book (1993)

Synonyms

noble
vsaristocrat
63 5.3

A person from a high social family with a title

is the broader label for anyone from the highest social class
nobleman
vsaristocrat
14 5.6

A man from a high social class who has a title

is gender neutral and applies to any person of the highest social class
blue blood
vsaristocrat
7 7.6

A person who comes from a rich or royal family

is the neutral class name rather than an idiom about birth
patrician
vsaristocrat
4 8.5

A person from the upper class who has polite manners

is the general class label without stressing refined manners or tone
aristo
vsaristocrat
  • Archaic
1 9.6

A person from the upper class who has high social rank

is the neutral formal label used in standard contexts rather than slang
female aristocrat
vsaristocrat
7.0

A woman from a high social class with a family title

is the general, non‑gendered label for someone from that same social class

Antonyms

31 4.2

A person without a noble title who is an ordinary member of society

3 7.9

Typical of ordinary people rather than the rich or powerful

Compounds

A woman from a high social class with a family title

How Noble

royal
497 3.1
aristocrat
38 6.5
noble
128 4.4
nonnoble
7.4
commoner
31 4.2
peasant
157 3.5

Surface Forms

aristocrat singular
aristocrats plural

Morphology

aristocrat = aristocracy (transparent) = aristo + crat

A speaker who knows 'aristocracy' can readily infer that 'aristocrat' is a person belonging to that class.

Etymology

The word aristocrat comes from Greek parts aristo- 'best' and -crat from kratos 'rule', the same -crat you see in democracy. So an aristocrat originally meant someone who 'rules as the best', and today it means a person from the highest social class.