as in aristocratic
of high birth, rank, or station
skeptics have argued that these dramatic masterpieces must have been written by someone more highborn than one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon
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Recent Examples of highborn
Sawai starred as Toda Mariko, a highborn woman with an important role to play in a brewing civil war among Japan’s ruling council of regents.
—
Joe Otterson, Variety, 16 Sep. 2024
Along a road lined with thousands of pagan graves and the multilayered catacombs of the Christians, the Gothic army traveled after the three-day sack, leading wagons bulging with loot and a contingent of highborn Roman hostages, of whom by far the most valuable was the 20-year-old Placidia.
—Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2023
But unlike the sinisterly driven and chaste Eve—played by the highborn Anne Baxter, granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright—Miss Caswell uses her body to get ahead, providing a foil for the successful antihero.
—Sophie Lewis, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022
The banking dynasty’s founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild of Frankfurt, a Jewish dealer in rare coins, began making loans and cultivating a highborn clientele in the 18th century.
—James R. Hagerty, WSJ, 11 Nov. 2022
Nannette, with her plain, angular face and hawklike eyes, wasn’t beautiful or highborn.
—Patricia Morrisroe, New York Times, 6 Nov. 2020
Live, Love, Laugh, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
AVAILABLE ITEMS
PRINCELY AF sweatshirt (£80): Sharpie on a Champion-brand hooded sweatshirt—the perfect blend of highborn-lowbrow!
—Emily Flake, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2020
Modern Jerusalem was spared Disneyfication, first by the highborn culture of British colonialism, with its awe for the city’s antique past, and next by Jordanian paralysis, which froze the Old City as if in amber.
—Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2019
One is a seedy refuge in Pigalle, with rat droppings on the floor and a lone bullet, left in a drawer; another is a château in the countryside, with snow on the ground and a highborn family in residence.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2019
Joe Otterson, Variety, 16 Sep. 2024
Along a road lined with thousands of pagan graves and the multilayered catacombs of the Christians, the Gothic army traveled after the three-day sack, leading wagons bulging with loot and a contingent of highborn Roman hostages, of whom by far the most valuable was the 20-year-old Placidia.
—Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2023
But unlike the sinisterly driven and chaste Eve—played by the highborn Anne Baxter, granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright—Miss Caswell uses her body to get ahead, providing a foil for the successful antihero.
—Sophie Lewis, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022
The banking dynasty’s founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild of Frankfurt, a Jewish dealer in rare coins, began making loans and cultivating a highborn clientele in the 18th century.
—James R. Hagerty, WSJ, 11 Nov. 2022
Nannette, with her plain, angular face and hawklike eyes, wasn’t beautiful or highborn.
—Patricia Morrisroe, New York Times, 6 Nov. 2020
Live, Love, Laugh, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
AVAILABLE ITEMS
PRINCELY AF sweatshirt (£80): Sharpie on a Champion-brand hooded sweatshirt—the perfect blend of highborn-lowbrow!
—Emily Flake, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2020
Modern Jerusalem was spared Disneyfication, first by the highborn culture of British colonialism, with its awe for the city’s antique past, and next by Jordanian paralysis, which froze the Old City as if in amber.
—Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2019
One is a seedy refuge in Pigalle, with rat droppings on the floor and a lone bullet, left in a drawer; another is a château in the countryside, with snow on the ground and a highborn family in residence.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for highborn
Adjective
-
The original show’s focus was Thomas Ravenel and Shep Rose, two male members of the aristocratic class in South Carolina.—
Taylor Crumpton,
Essence,
11 Apr. 2025
-
But by the 18th century the Republic of Venice was in decline, and some aristocratic families, though still noble in name, had lost much of their wealth and could not afford a substantial dowry.—
Manuela Callari,
Smithsonian Magazine,
26 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The coat of arms above serves as the door for the ‘most noble, most loyal, most valiant and always loyal’.—
Jacob Tanswell,
New York Times,
24 Apr. 2025
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But even if Van Hollen’s motivation for going to El Salvador was less than noble, the truth is there are things more important than the political fight of the day.—
Chris Roemer,
Baltimore Sun,
24 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Highborn.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/highborn. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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