bentley

bentley — noun

1. a costly luxury car originally produced in Britain; the brand was bought by a Ge

1.noun
Definition

a costly luxury car originally produced in Britain; the brand was bought by a German manufacturer in 1998 and is still made today.

Example

The hotel doorman parked Mr. Chen's silver Bentley near the marble entrance.

proper-noun car brand used as common noun for the vehicle itself

Gita saved for thirty years before he could afford a second-hand Bentley.

collocation: afford / buy / drive a Bentley

Common collocations
  • drive a Bentley
  • own a Bentley
  • vintage Bentley
  • classic Bentley
  • step out of a Bentley
Synonyms
  • Rolls-Royce

    another British luxury car brand, often paired with Bentley in conversation about prestige vehicles

  • limousine

    generic word for a long luxury car; not a brand

Usage Note

Always capitalised because it is a registered trademark. Often used as a status marker in writing about wealth, business, or weddings, where the brand stands in for the idea of luxury rather than just any car.

Common Mistakes

He drives a bentley.
He drives a Bentley.
brand names keep their capital letter even when used like a common noun.
A Bentley is a German car.
Bentley is a British brand now owned by a German firm.
the cars are still designed and built in Britain; only the parent company is German.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Jaguar are all British car brands associated with wealth, but they sit on different rungs. Rolls-Royce is the most formal of the three and is most often pictured as a chauffeur-driven car for royalty or heads of state. Bentley shares the same engineering heritage (the two firms were linked for most of the 20th century) but is seen as the sportier, owner-driven option, popular with business owners and footballers. Jaguar is a step down in price and feels less ceremonial; people speak of buying a Jaguar much more casually. Limousine is not a brand at all but a body style — any long luxury car with a separate passenger cabin, often hired for weddings. So you might say, 'They arrived in a Bentley,' to suggest understated wealth, but 'A limousine took them to the airport,' if the focus is the long shape of the car rather than the brand.

Bentley ↗Rolls-RoyceJaguar ↗limousine ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • Bentley owner
  • Bentley dealership
  • Bentley engine

Phrases

  • drive a Bentley
  • own a Bentley
  • vintage Bentley
  • classic Bentley

Prepositions

  • in a Bentley
  • out of a Bentley

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish surnameModern English brand name

The brand takes its name from Walter Owen Bentley, an English engineer who founded Bentley Motors in London in 1919. He wanted to build fast, well-made cars, and his early models won the Le Mans 24-hour race several times in the 1920s. Rolls-Royce bought the company in 1931, and Bentley stayed under that roof until 1998, when the German carmaker Volkswagen took it over. The surname Bentley itself comes from Old English 'beonet' (bent grass) plus 'leah' (a clearing or meadow), so it originally meant 'meadow where bent grass grows.'