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Webster 1913 Edition


Potentate

Po′ten-tate

,
Noun.
[LL.
potentatus
, fr.
potentare
to exercise power: cf. F.
potentat
. See
Potent
,
Adj.
]
One who is potent; one who possesses great power or sway; a prince, sovereign, or monarch.
The blessed and only
potentate
.
1 Tim. vi. 15.
Cherub and seraph,
potentates
and thrones.
Milton.

Webster 1828 Edition


Potentate

PO'TENTATE

,
Noun.
A person who possesses great power or sway; a prince; a sovereign; an emperor, king or monarch.
Exalting him not only above earthly princes and potentates, but above the highest of the celestial hierarchy.

Definition 2024


potentate

potentate

English

Noun

potentate (plural potentates)

  1. A powerful leader; a monarch; a ruler
    • 1592, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, act iii, scene 2
      But Kings and mightieſt Potentates muſt die,
      For that's the end of humane miſerie.
    • 1900, Theodore Dreiser, "Sister Carrie"
      She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate as the treasures of his harem.
  2. A powerful polity or institution.
  3. (derogatory) A self-important person.

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

potentate (comparative more potentate, superlative most potentate)

  1. (obsolete) Regnant, powerful, dominant.