Thesaurus results for NOBLE SAVAGE

noble savage

noun

Definition of noble savage

as in barbarian

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of noble savage The canonical work of Edward Curtis established the tragic view and elegiac rhetoric of Native people as noble savages unassimilable to Progress and hence destined for cultural, if not biological, extinction. — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025 The curtain was ornately embroidered with images of bears, onion domes, and noble savages untainted by logic. — Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023 Native Americans have long been depicted in Hollywood films and television projects as either bloodthirsty barbarians or noble savages. — Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2023 Rather the novel presents Tarzan as Rousseau’s unspoiled child of nature, a literally noble savage free from the vices and corruption associated with advanced industrial society. — Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2020 In this sense, he is cast as a modernizer, turning noble savages into solid citizens. — James Marcus, The New Yorker, 1 June 2020 Whereas the book’s white characters are nuanced, Indian characters are reduced to dangerous adversaries or noble savages. — Elena Nicolaou, refinery29.com, 24 Aug. 2019

Recent Examples of Synonyms for noble savage

Noun

In the absence of other forces, empires seldom succumb to a challenger or to barbarians at the gates.

— NIALL FERGUSON, Foreign Affairs, 20 Oct. 2026
So that, zombie- or indeed mummy-like, the barbarians can mimic imperial subjects enough to look human.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of barbarian

Noun

And mostly, the comedian known for his savage takedowns and viral beefs is keeping his cool.

— Timothy Bella, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026
Among the English-speaking settlers, the events at Lake George would be remembered as a massacre, and the Indigenous people whose home this was, whose conventions of war did not match those of the European empires, were called savages.

— James Whorton Jr, Longreads, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of savage

Noun

Inventory scanners flag every primitive the library makes available.

— Atsushi Yamada, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2026
What follows this admission is a piercing dissection not of the art itself, but of frameworks of looking at Black art and life that go beyond racist tropes disguised as appeals to the primitive, the spontaneous, the corporeal.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Mar. 2026

Definition of primitive

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“Noble savage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/noble%20savage. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of noble savage

noun

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