In the past, a misconception sometimes led to the mistranslation of "szlachta" as "gentry" rather than "nobility".[24][8][25] This mistaken practice began due to the inferior economic status of many szlachta members compared to that of the nobility in other European countries (see also Estates of the Realm regarding wealth and nobility).[26][27] The szlachta included those rich and powerful enough to be great magnates down to the impoverished with an aristocratic lineage, but with no land, no castle, no money, no village, and no subject peasants.[28] Historian M.Ross wrote in 1835: "At least 60,000 families belong to this class, of which, however, only about 100 are wealthy; all the rest are poor."[29]

A few exceptionally wealthy and powerful szlachta members constituted the magnateria and were known as magnates (magnates of Poland and Lithuania).