humbleness

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈhʌmbəlnəs/ UK /ˈhʌmbəlnəs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
the quality of being modest and without arrogance

Despite his fame, he spoke with genuine humbleness.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the quality of being modest... humility modesty meeknesslowlinessunpretentiousnessdiffidence

Opposites

arrogance pride conceit haughtiness

Word family

Related forms humble humbly humiliate

Etymology

From humble + -ness; humble comes via Old French from Latin humilis ('low, lowly'), from humus ('ground, earth').

humilis Latin humus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# humbleness

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhʌmbəlnəs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhʌmbəlnəs/

## Meanings
1. the quality of being modest and without arrogance

## Examples
- Despite his fame, he spoke with genuine humbleness.

## Synonyms
- humility
- modesty
- meekness
- lowliness
- unpretentiousness
- diffidence

## Antonyms
- arrogance
- pride
- conceit
- haughtiness

## Related Forms
- humble
- humbly
- humiliate

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: humilis
- Root: humus

## Etymology
From humble + -ness; humble comes via Old French from Latin humilis ('low, lowly'), from humus ('ground, earth').

## AI Etymology
humbleness comes from humble + -ness; humble comes via Old French from Latin humilis ('low, lowly'), from humus ('ground, earth'). Morphologically, the ending is part of the etymology: the suffix is attached to the older base named in the history, producing a later English derivative. In present English, the noun sense is "the quality of being modest and without arrogance", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as humble, humbly, and humiliate. Its semantic neighborhood includes humility, modesty, meekness, and lowliness, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Latin humilis and Latin humus.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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humbleness

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