aristocratic

adjective aris·to·crat·ic \ ə-ˌris-tə-ˈkra-tik , (ˌ)a-ˌris-tə- , ˌa-rə-stə- \

Definition of aristocratic

1 :belonging to, having the qualities of, or favoring aristocracy

an aristocratic family

aristocratic titles

2 a :socially exclusive

an aristocratic neighborhood

b :snobbish

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aristocratically

play \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Examples of aristocratic in a Sentence

the restaurant's cuisine is truly superb, but the maître d's aristocratic demeanor is a bit much
an impoverished dowager who never lets people forget about her aristocratic origins

Recent Examples of aristocratic from the Web

Rich and aristocratic men are made ridiculous in practically every le Carré work.

— josephine livingstone, New Republic, "The Glorious Return of George Smiley," 28 Aug. 2017
Peter Simple in real life was the writer Michael Wharton who, unlike his grandly aristocratic columnar personality, was a modest, unassuming, and soft-voiced middle-class journalist from the West Riding of Yorkshire.

— john o'sullivan, National Review, "The Trump Era as Unintended Political Satire — Recalling Peter Simple," 4 Aug. 2017
His presidency was doomed: Jackson and his allies in New York and Pennsylvania had him in their sights as a big fat target who could be called corrupt, old-fashioned, and aristocratic without any threat to slavery needing to be mentioned.

— david waldstreicher, The Atlantic, "The Revival of John Quincy Adams," 11 July 2017
In Sweden the potato was mostly restricted to aristocratic greenhouses and thought of as animal feed.

— joseph hincks, Time, "A New Google Doodle Celebrates the Life of Swedish Agronomist Eva Ekeblad," 10 July 2017
Experts believe that the ruins may have once been an aristocratic home, reports The Local, Italy.

— brigit katz, Smithsonian, "A Dog from 3rd Century Rome Was Discovered During Subway Excavations," 28 June 2017
How did things go so wrong for this 54-year-old onetime wunderkind, who had come up through the ranks in the Met’s tiny tapestry department before succeeding Philippe de Montebello, the museum’s longtime aristocratic director, in 2009?

— william d. cohan, The Hive, "Inside a Met Director’s Shocking Exit and the Billion-Dollar Battle for the Museum’s Future," 19 June 2017
This film focuses on a young, aristocratic, 19th-century French woman who slowly realizes that her chances for personal fulfillment are thwarted by an unhappy marriage and other crippling social strictures.

— greg burnett, cleveland.com, "Cultural films at theater's around Northeast Ohio for June 9 through June 15," 8 June 2017
Ten years later, his father, Tadeusz, a diplomat from an aristocratic Catholic family, was posted to Montreal as Poland’s consul general.

— jim hoagland, Washington Post, "Zbigniew Brzezinski, foreign policy intellectual who served as Carter’s national security adviser, dies at 89," 26 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'aristocratic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.