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sovereign

Pronunciation: /ˈsɒv.ɹɪn/

The English word “sovereign” has 14 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Exercising power of rule.
  2. Having supreme, ultimate power; (often specifically, of a polity) having fully independent power in international relations.
  3. Exceptional in quality.
  4. Extremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).
  5. Princely; royal.
  6. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.

noun

  1. A monarch: a supreme ruler of a country in a monarchical system.
  2. One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
  3. A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.
  4. A former Australian gold coin, minted from 1855–1931, of one pound value.
  5. A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33+¹⁄₃ standard bottles.
  6. Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, eg., ursula, viceroy.
  7. A large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.

verb

  1. To rule over as a sovereign.

Etymology

From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. Doublet of souverain. See also suzerain, foreign.

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