kingmaker

Pronunciation: /ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/

The English word “kingmaker” has 2 meanings listed here.

noun

Someone who has strong influence over the choice of a leader.
A player who is unable to win but powerful enough to decide which of the other viable players will eventually win.

Etymology

From king + maker, originally used in the 16th century in “Warwick the Kingmaker”, an epithet of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), a key figure in the Wars of the Roses whose actions led to King Henry VI being deposed in 1461 and Edward IV appointed in his place, then Edward IV being replaced by Henry VI again in 1470.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “kingmaker” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.