dignity

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English dignitee, borrowed from Old French dignité, from Latin dīgnitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dīgnus (“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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪɡnɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

dignity (countable and uncountable, plural dignities)

1. The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
   • 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii

     He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.

   • 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5

     Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness.
   • 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:

     Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.

3. High office, rank, or station.
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:

     He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.

   • Macaulay

     And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?

4. One holding high rank; a dignitary.
   • Bible, Jude 8.

     These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.

5. (obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.
   • Sir Thomas Browne

     Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.

Synonyms

• worth
• worthiness

Coordinate terms

• augustness, humanness, nobility, majesty, grandeur, glory, superiority, wonderfulness

Related terms

• deign
• dignified
• dignify

Translations

quality or state

• Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
• Afar: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: waardigheid
• Albanian: dinjitet (sq)
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: كَرَامَة (ar) f (karāma)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: արժանապատվություն (hy) (aržanapatvutʻyun)
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: dignidá f
• Aymara: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: ləyaqət, şərəf (az)
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: duintasun
• Belarusian: го́днасць f (hódnascʹ), дасто́інства n (dastóinstva)
• Bengali: মর্যাদা (môryada)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: досто́йнство (bg) n (dostójnstvo)
• Burmese: အသရေ (my) (a.sa.re), သိန် (my) (sin)
• Catalan: dignitat (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎠᏢᏉᏙᏗ (atlvquododi)
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 尊嚴／尊严 (zh) (zūnyán), 尊严 (zh) (zūnyán)

• Cornish: please add this translation if you can
• Czech: důstojnost f
• Danish: værdighed c
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: waardigheid (nl) f
• Dzongkha: please add this translation if you can
• Esperanto: digno (eo)
• Estonian: väärikus
• Ewe: please add this translation if you can
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: tign f, sómi m, manslæti n, virðileiki m, tignarlæti n
• Finnish: arvokkuus (fi)
• French: dignité (fr) f
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: dignidade (gl) f
• Georgian: ღირსება (ɣirseba)
• German: Würde (de) f
• Greek: αξιοπρέπεια (el) f (axioprépeia)

  Ancient: σεμνότης f (semnótēs)

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: hanohano, kapukapu
• Hebrew: כָּבוֹד (he) m (kavód)
• Hindi: गरिमा (hi) m (garimā)
• Hungarian: méltóság (hu)
• Icelandic: virðuleiki m, reisn f
• Ido: digneso (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: martabat (id)
• Interlingua: dignitate
• Interlingue:
• Irish: dínit f, ardchéim f
• Italian: dignità (it) f
• Japanese: 尊厳 (ja) (そんげん, songen)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kazakh: адамгершілік (adamgerşılık)
• Khmer: ភាពថ្លៃថ្នូរ (pʰiep tlay tnoo)
• Korean: 존엄 (joneom), 존엄성 (joneomseong)
• Kyrgyz: кадыр (ky) (kadır), нарк (ky) (nark)
• Lao: ສັກສີ (sak sī)
• Latin: dignitas (la) f
• Latvian: cieņa f
• Lithuanian: orumas m
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: Dignitéit
• Macedonian: достоинство n (dostoinstvo)
• Malay: maruah
• Maltese: dinjità f
• Manx: mooaralys f
• Maori: amarutanga
• Marathi: मोठेपण (moṭhepaṇ)
• Mirandese: denidade f
• Mongolian: нэр хүнд (ner xünd)
• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Oriya: ମର୍ଯ୍ୟାଦା (or) (maryẏādā)
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: منزلت (fa) (manzelat), شأن (fa) (ša'n), ورج (fa) (varj)
• Polish: godność (pl) f, dostojeństwo n
• Portuguese: dignidade (pt) f
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Rajasthani:
• Romanian: demnitate (ro) f
• Romansch: dignitad f (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), dignited f (Puter), dignità f (Vallader)
• Russian: досто́инство (ru) n (dostóinstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: достојанство n

  Roman: dostojanstvo (sh) n

• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: අභිමානය (abhimānaya)
• Slovak: dôstojnosť f
• Slovene: dostojanstvo (sl) n
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: dignidad (es) f
• Swedish: värdighet (sv) c
• Tagalog: dignidad
• Tajik: шаън (tg) (šaʾn), манзалат (manzalat)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: గౌరవం (te) (gauravaṁ)
• Thai: ศักดิ์ศรี (th) (sàk sĕe)
• Turkish: haysiyet (tr), şeref (tr)
• Turkmen: mertebe
• Ukrainian: досто́їнство n (dostójinstvo), гі́дність f (hídnistʹ)
• Uzbek: viqor (uz), martaba (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhân phẩm (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: ווערדע f (verde)
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

formality, stateliness

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: plechtigheid (nl) c
• Finnish: juhlavuus (fi), muodollisuus (fi)
• French: forme (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek:

  Ancient: βάρος n (báros)

• Hungarian: illem (hu)
• Irish: ardchéim f
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: dignidad (es) f

high office or rank

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: waardigheid (nl) c
• Finnish: arvoasema (fi) (office), arvonimi (fi) (rank)
• French: rang (fr) m, dignité (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: méltóság (hu)
• Interlingua: dignitate
• Manx: ardcheim f
• Russian: зва́ние (ru) n (zvánije), сан (ru) m (san), до́лжность (ru) f (dólžnostʹ)
• Spanish: dignidad (es) f

See also

• affirmation
• integrity
• self-respect
• self-esteem
• self-worth

• “dignity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dignity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• tidying