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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

courteous.

Showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈkɜːti.əs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɝti.əs/General-American
  1. Showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.

    a courteous gentleman   a courteous gesture
Where this word comes from

From Middle English curteis, from Old French curteis (French courtois), from cort (“court”). By surface analysis, court + -eous. Compare typologically Czech zdvořilý (<~ dvůr), German höflich (<~ Hof). Also note Russian прийти́сь ко двору́ (prijtísʹ ko dvorú). Compare typologically civil, urbane. See pagan for the opposite.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.