The most powerful members of a society.

synonym: aristocracy.

Roget 875: nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy^†, blood, pur sang [Fr.], birth, high descent, order; quality, gentility; blue blood of Castile; ancien regime [Fr.].    high life, haute monde [Fr.]; upper classes, upper ten thousand; the four hundred [U.S.]; elite, aristocracy, great folks; fashionable world etc. (fashion) 852.    peer, peerage; house of lords, house of peers; lords, lords temporal and spiritual; noblesse; noble, nobleman; lord, lordling^†; grandee, magnifico [Lat.], hidalgo; daimio [Jap.], daimyo [Jap.], samurai [Jap.], shizoku [Jap.]; don, donship^†; aristocrat, swell, three-tailed bashaw^†; gentleman, squire, squireen^†, patrician, laureate.    gentry, gentlefolk; squirarchy [Slang], better sort magnates, primates, optimates^†; pantisocracy^†.    king etc. (master) 745; atheling^†; prince, duke; marquis, marquisate^†; earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret^†; baronet, baronetcy^†; knight, knighthood; count, armiger^†, laird; signior^†, seignior; esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour^†; emir, ameer^†, scherif^†, sharif, effendi, wali; sahib; chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave^†, pasha, rajah, waldgrave^†.    princess, begum^†, duchess, marchioness; countess &c.; lady, dame; memsahib; Do$a, maharani, rani.    personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark; notables, notabilities; celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar; big bug; big gun, great gun; gilded rooster [U.S.]; magni nominis umbra [Lat.] [Lucan]; every inch a king" [Lear]. ... show more

Dutch: Gentry
Polish: jaśniepaństwo, arystokracja, możnowładztwo, magnateria