humble

1. 1.

   cause to be unpretentious

   “This experience will humble him”

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerefface
2. 2.

   cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of

   “He humiliated his colleague by criticising him in front of the boss”

   Synonymshumiliatemortifychagrinabase

   Broaderhurt

   Narrowercrushtake down

Other forms of humble

past tense

humbled·

present participle

humbling·

third person

humbles·

comparative

humbler·

superlative

humblest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about humble

What does humble mean?

humble means "low or inferior in station or quality". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in humble?

humble has 2 syllables: hum-ble. The stress falls on "hum". In IPA it is /ˈhʌmbəl/.

What is another word for humble?

Close synonyms include low, lowly, modest, small, menial. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of humble?

The recorded antonyms are proud.

Is humble a common word?

humble is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.