These words all deal with qualities of mind or manner characteristic of well-bred, worldly wise or educated people. Virtually every one of the words here discussed is sometimes used in a derogatory, disapproving or humorously condescending way.

Urbane means having a refined or polished manner, such as befits one who is well travelled, will-bred or long accustomed to the society of cultivated people; an urbane conversation about Continental cooking. Cultivated indicates a sophistication acquired through formal education or purposeful experience: a cultivated appreciation of abstract art. Cultivated speech is educated speech, as distinguished from the speech of the ignorant, untutored or illiterate. When applied to people, cultivated often stresses knowledge and the appreciation of the arts, whereas sophisticated can suggest superficiality, indicating over-polished manners and sometimes a sceptical or jaded attitude towards life: Too sophisticated for plain fare, she frowned in disgust at the simple food humbly placed before her. Cultivated can also be used derogatorily to mean contrived or affected: a carefully cultivated Southern English accent designed to impress her fiends.

When sophisticated is positive in tone, it points to advanced perception and an appreciation of culture that comes with study or experience; in such contexts even the toughness or worldly wise quality the word connotes may be viewed with admiration: Although the play was considered strong stuff by out-of-town audiences, the sophisticated city playgoers, found it weak tea, and the show closed in three weeks. When applied to things, sophisticated often means using advanced and complicated technological techniques: a very sophisticated antip-missile missile defence system. In its association with scientific achievement, the word acquires a wholly positive character; there are few things more highly valued in 20th-century society than modern technology.

Genteel conveys derogatory or humorously condescending connotations in most uses today. Genteel formerly meant simply well-bred or refined, but nowadays it usually means too consciously cultivated . To call a person or his manners genteel implies that he is defensive and unsure of his own social background or status, and therefore so anxious to prove himself cultivated that he succeeds only in making himself pretentious or ridiculous: Her genteel manners made it impossible for her to grasp a coffee cup without elevating two fingers, even though the coffee frequently sloshed on to the floor as a result. Buildings are sometimes described as being "shabby genteel ," indicating a ludicrous incongruity between the once splendid décor and its present, poorly maintained condition or old-fashioned style. The personification suggests someone who has seen better days and is now trying with only moderate success to appear respectable.

Suave means smoothly pleasant or ingratiating; it may be purely descriptive and quite neutral in tone, and in this sense is close to urbane in meaning: a suave and masterfully executed bow. But it may be associated with a surface politeness, an oily manner and glibness in speech: At first she found him attractive and suave , but the soon recognized his falseness and basic vulgarity.