gentleman
gentle·man[ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]noun
gentleman is spelled G-E-N-T-L-E-M-A-N: 9 letters and 2 syllables (gentle·man). It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “gentleman vs gentlemen” about 1,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, gentleman means “Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gentleman is gentlemen.
How many letters and syllables are in gentleman?
| Letters | 9: G-E-N-T-L-E-M-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: gentle·man |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,496th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is gentleman?
Gentleman appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gentleman?
- /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/
- US [ˈd͡ʒɛɾ̃.ɫ̩.mən]
Gentleman has 2 syllables, split gentle·man in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gentleman.ogg, En-au-gentleman.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with gentleman
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of gentleman
- gentlemen plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gentleman mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man.
- 2
Any man.
Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.
- 3
A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armigerous man ranking below a knight.
Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.
- 4
derogatoryAn effeminate or oversophisticated man.
Well, la-di-da, aren't you just a proper gentleman?
- 5
derogatoryAn amateur or dabbler in any field, particularly those of independent means.
- 6
An amateur player, particularly one whose wealth permits him to forego payment.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gentleman in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gentilhomme , monsieur , messieurs |
| German | Herr , meine Herren |
| Portuguese | fidalgo, nobre, gentil-homem , senhor, cavalheiro |
| Spanish | caballero, gentilhombre, hidalgo, hijodalgo, gentleman, fidalgo (disused) |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gentleman come from?
From Middle English gentilman, morphologically gentle + man, partial calque of Old French gentilhome.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).