gentry
noun /ˈdʒentri/
/ˈdʒentri/
[plural] (usually the gentry)
(old-fashioned)- people belonging to a high social class
- the local gentry
- the landed gentry (= those who own a lot of land)
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘superiority of birth or rank’): from Anglo-Norman French genterie, based on gentil ‘high-born, noble’, from Latin gentilis ‘of the same clan’, from gens, gent- ‘family, race’, from the root of gignere ‘beget’.