better angels

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Noble and good qualities of human nature

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Những phẩm chất cao尚 và tốt của bản tính con người

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: good angels
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Our better angels prevailed, and we decided to help

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “better angels” mean?

Noble and good qualities of human nature Literally: good angels

Is “better angels” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.