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SOVEREIGN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A nation's ruler or head of state usually by hereditary right
Synonyms:
crowned head; monarch; sovereign
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("sovereign" is a kind of...):
chief of state; head of state (the chief public representative of a country who may also be the head of government)
ruler; swayer (a person who rules or commands)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sovereign"):
Capetian (a member of the Capetian dynasty)
Carlovingian; Carolingian (a member of the Carolingian dynasty)
czar; tsar; tzar (a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917))
emperor (the male ruler of an empire)
king; male monarch; Rex (a male sovereign; ruler of a kingdom)
Merovingian (a member of the Merovingian dynasty)
Shah; Shah of Iran (title for the former hereditary monarch of Iran)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Greatest in status or authority or power
Example:
a supreme tribunal
Synonyms:
sovereign; supreme
Classified under:
Similar:
dominant (exercising influence or control)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(of political bodies) not controlled by outside forces
Example:
a sovereign state
Synonyms:
autonomous; independent; self-governing; sovereign
Classified under:
Similar:
free (not limited or hampered; not under compulsion or restraint)
Context examples:
There exist twenty-five territories, including sovereign states, overseas departments and dependencies.
(Caribbean, NCI Thesaurus)
And so saying, he was hurrying away, before Fanny, overpowered by a thousand feelings of pain and pleasure, could attempt to speak; but quickened by one sovereign wish, she then called out, Oh! cousin, stop a moment, pray stop!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Sometimes, to make it a more sovereign specific, he was so kind as to squeeze orange juice into it, or to stir it up with ginger, or dissolve a peppermint drop in it; and although I cannot assert that the flavour was improved by these experiments, or that it was exactly the compound one would have chosen for a stomachic, the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning, I drank it gratefully and was very sensible of his attention.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Here is half a sovereign for your trouble.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my week’s work.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Through the sound of the shivering glass I could hear the "ting" of the gold, as some of the sovereigns fell on the flagging.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The ring, Adele, is in my breeches-pocket, under the disguise of a sovereign: but I mean soon to change it to a ring again.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
A large pile of sovereigns, and several slips of paper were lying before him, and he was counting over his gambling gains.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There was a box of vestas, two inches of tallow candle, an A.D.P. briar-root pipe, a pouch of seal-skin with half an ounce of long-cut Cavendish, a silver watch with a gold chain, five sovereigns in gold, an aluminium pencil-case, a few papers, and an ivory-handled knife with a very delicate, inflexible blade marked Weiss & Co., London.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But, as to the formality of taking possession in my sovereign’s name, it never came once into my thoughts; and if it had, yet, as my affairs then stood, I should perhaps, in point of prudence and self-preservation, have put it off to a better opportunity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
