courteous
UK/ˈkɜːti.əs//ˈkɝti.əs/
courteous adjective: showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.
Adjective
courteous (comparative more courteous, superlative most courteous)
- Showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.
- a courteous gentleman a courteous gesture
- Nectar ran / In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd; / And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd / New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; [...]1818, John Keats, “Book III”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 149, lines 932–935
- Synonyms:
- civil, gracious, civilized, complaisant, correct, cultivated, fair-mannered, genteel, mannerly, polished
- Antonyms:
- discourteous, uncourteous, aweless, improper, bad-mannered, barbaric, bold, bumptious, crude, churlish
courteous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
courteous in Hindi
- showing regard for others
- विनम्र vinamra, शालीन śālīn
courteous in Tamil
- நாகரிகமான, அடக்கமான, நயப்பாங்கான, சரசி, பண்பாடுள்ள, சரசக்காரன்
courteous in Urdu
- باادب, خلیق, خوش اخلاق, شائستہ
courteous in Bengali
- ভদ্র, সৌজন্যপূর্ণ
More languagesFewer languages
- courteous in Malayalam
- മര്യാദയുളള, സുശീലമായ, ആദരവുള്ള, ബഹുമാനമുള്ള
- courteous in Kannada
- ವಿನಯಶೀಲನಾದ, ಸೌಜನ್ಯಶೀಲನಾದ, ವಿನೀತ, ಸಭ್ಯ
- courteous in Arabic
- مُهَذَّب muhaḏḏab, مُؤَدَّب muʔaddab
- courteous in Persian
- مؤدب mo'addab
Examples of courteous in a sentence
- He bit back his anger and managed a courteous reply.
- The protagonist here is a faithful, skilled and courteous maid from the old English society.
- He was curt and seldom smiled, while Wright, a bit hard of hearing, was always courteous.
Synonyms of courteous
8 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of courteous
| comparative | more courteous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most courteous |
Origin of courteous
From Middle English curteis, from Old French curteis (French courtois), from cort (“court”). By surface analysis, court + -eous. Compare typologically Czech zdvořilý (<~ dvůr), German höflich (<~ Hof). Also note Russian прийти́сь ко двору́ (prijtísʹ ko dvorú). Compare typologically civil, urbane. See pagan for the opposite.
Words formed from courteous
Questions about courteous
- What does courteous mean?
- Courteous means showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.
- What is courteous in Hindi?
- Courteous in Hindi is विनम्र (vinamra), शालीन (śālīn). See Courteous meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is courteous?
- Courteous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce courteous?
- Courteous is pronounced /ˈkɜːti.əs/ (UK).
Words near courteous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: courteous (page history and authors); courteous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); courteous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); courteous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); courteous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); courteous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-courteous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “courteous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/courteous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.