Jenny Daggers links feminist critiques and interreligious dialogue, arguing that our failure to treat people of other traditions with dignity matches in deed and rhetoric our inability to see that women are full and equal members of the community.—Francis X. Clooney, Commonweal, 11 Sept. 2009When King spoke about the racist past, he gloried in black people beating the odds to win equal rights by arming "ourselves with dignity and self-respect."—Juan Williams, Wall Street Journal, 4 Apr. 2008The period just after the Revolutionary War (1780-1820) was a time to project hard-won dignity, not show off. Federal interiors featured muted wall colors … and delicately carved or inlaid decoration.—Kelly Beamon, This Old House, March 2008Roger was beaming. His creased fat face literally shone with pleasure, which, for the sake of dignity, he struggled to contain.—Alice Adams, The Story and Its Writer, 1987Every speaker tries to create a love affair with his or her audience. But when the phenomenon called Maya Angelou takes the lectern at Pensacola (Florida) Junior College, she does not so much speak to the audience as "embrace" it. She sings, reads verse, thunders oratorically, even dances. Standing a majestic six feet tall and gifted with a resonant voice and … dignity, she is a poet, preacher, performer extraordinaire.—Cheryl McCall, People, 8 Mar. 1982
She showed dignity in defeat.
The ceremony was conducted with great dignity.
Theirs is a country that cherishes freedom and human dignity.
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Leninism, with its Bolshevik contempt for religion and family; Frantz Fanon's poisonous doctrine that violence is not only justified but the very path to human dignity; and Islamism's contempt for the West.—Ayaan Hirsi Ali, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025 Wanjira Mathai says that her mother, esteemed Kenyan activist and 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, taught her that environmental justice and human dignity are inseparable.—Elisabeth Brier, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025 Maria died a diva, broken but proud, with a dignity that Angelina Jolie never revealed for a moment.—Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2025 Her racist, unhinged and xenophobic comments about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar are beneath the dignity of the Congress.—Tierra Cunningham, ABC News, 17 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for dignity
Word History
Etymology
Middle English dignete, from Anglo-French digneté, from Latin dignitat-, dignitas, from dignus
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