Dignity Meaning
/ˈdɪɡnɪti/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
nounDecorum, formality, stateliness.
Sentence Examples
You don't have proper dignity as chief of the section.
Your action has offended his dignity.
She accepted the criticism with quiet dignity.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She maintained her ____ even when the crowd began to mock her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You don't have proper ____ as chief of the section.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *dḱ-nos, from *deḱ- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign. Doublet of dainty. In this sense, displaced native Old English weorþsċipe, which became Modern English worship.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity."
— 1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in Amelia. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC:
"Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being."
— 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5:
"Historically, dignity has been ascribed to an elite group, but human dignity with reference to humanity and the human family has democratized dignity. […]. The idea of dignity as rank was carried over in Christian doctrine […]."
— 2021, Magdalena Smieszek, “A Brief History of Dignity”, in The Evolving Psyche of Law in Europe: The Psychology of Human Rights and Asylum Frameworks, page 205:
"The reception room was sacred to the dead wife. Her shiny portrait hung upon the wall - similar, doubtless, in all respects to the one which would be pasted on her tombstone. A little piece of black drapery had been tacked above the frame to lend a dignity to woe. But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet."
— 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7, third paragraph
"Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held."
— 1934, Aldous Huxley, “Puerto Barrios”, in Beyond the Mexique Bay:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She maintained her ____ even when the crowd began to mock her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You don't have proper ____ as chief of the section.