0 behaving in a way that is socially correct and shows understanding of and care for other people's feelings: --
polite conversation
She sent me a polite letter thanking me for my invitation.
I'm afraid I wasn't very polite to her.
1 behaving in a way that is socially correct and shows respect for other people’s feelings: --
The moods available for selection are: polite (the default mood), informal, humorous and angry moods.
He was cordial and polite enough, but when he got into a jam with people, he became nasty.
Perhaps manufacturers became progressively frozen out of land-based polite society.
What is meant and perceived as polite in a given context, however, will depend on judgments of appropriateness and markedness.
Whether the "guests" are who they say they are or not, all of them know that they are not expected to be polite.
It sounds like the very polite appellation of an earnest speaker trying not to offend on a topic which they quite possibly find offensive.
However, it is important not to map polite society in any mechanical way against the social hierarchy.
The signs that are changing, like the spoken words that are dropping out of polite usage, are often terms for various ethnic groups.
