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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

humble.

Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming.

    He lives in a humble one-bedroom cottage.
  2. Having a low position or a low opinion of oneself; not proud, arrogant, or assuming; modest.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English humble, from Old French humble, umble, humle, from Latin humilis (“low, slight, hence mean, humble”) (compare Greek χαμηλός (khamēlós, “on the ground, low, trifling”)), from humus (“the earth, ground”), humi (“on the ground”). See homage, and compare chameleon, humiliate. Displaced native Old English ēaþmōd.

noun/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. People with a low position or a low opinion of themselves; those who are not proud, arrogant, or assuming.

  2. An arrest based on weak evidence intended to demean or punish the subject.

    slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English humble, from Old French humble, umble, humle, from Latin humilis (“low, slight, hence mean, humble”) (compare Greek χαμηλός (khamēlós, “on the ground, low, trifling”)), from humus (“the earth, ground”), humi (“on the ground”). See homage, and compare chameleon, humiliate. Displaced native Old English ēaþmōd.

verb/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. To defeat or reduce the power, independence, or pride of.

    ambitransitive
  2. To make humble or lowly; to make less proud or arrogant; to make meek and submissive.

    often · reflexive · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English humblen (“to humble”), from the adjective above.

verb/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. To hum.

    intransitive · obsolete
    humbling and bumbling
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *humblen, *humbelen (suggested by humblynge (“a humming, a faint rumbling”)), frequentative of Middle English hummen (“to hum”), equivalent to hum + -le.

noun/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. Alternative form of hummel.

    Northern-England · Scotland · also · alt-of · alternative · attributive
    humble cattle
verb/ˈhʌmbəl/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈʌmbəl/Received-Pronunciation, Southern-US, archaic/ˈhʊmbəl/Northern-England
  1. Alternative form of hummel.

    alt-of · alternative · transitive
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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.