- nobility, aristocracy - a privileged class holding hereditary titles
--1 is a kind of elite, elite group
--1 has members: aristocrat, blue blood, patrician
--1 has particulars:noblesse; peerage, baronage; second estate, lords temporal; knighthood; samurai; Ferdinand and Isabella; William and Mary - gentry, aristocracy - the most powerful members of a society
--2 is a kind of upper class, upper crust
--2 has particulars: landed gentry, squirearchy