humility
/hjuːˈmɪlɪti/noun
humility is spelled H-U-M-I-L-I-T-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 3.9 times per million words in written English, the 13,127th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, humility means “The characteristic of being humble; humbleness in character and behavior” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of humility is humilities.
How many letters and syllables are in humility?
| Letters | 8: H-U-M-I-L-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.9 times per million words; the 13,127th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is humility?
Humility appears 3.9 times per million words in written English, the 13,127th 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 humility?
- /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/
Humility has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-humility.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of humility
- humilities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does humility mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The characteristic of being humble; humbleness in character and behavior.
You can tell his humility is real by how he treats ordinary people.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Humility in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense characteristic of being humble:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | humilité |
| German | Bescheidenheit, Demut |
| Portuguese | humildade |
| Spanish | humildad |
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 humility come from?
From Middle English humilite, from Old French (h)umilité, from Latin humilitas (“lowness, meanness, baseness, in Late Latin humility”), from humilis (“low, lowly, humble, earth”). Equivalent to humble + -ity, with /mb/ reduced to /m/ (compare plumbing). Displaced native Old English ēaþmōdnes. Doublet of omertà.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).