potentate
/ˈpoʊ.tən.teɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.94 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A powerful polity or institution.
Example Sentences
- "But Kings and mightieſt Potentates muſt die, For that's the end of humane miſerie."
- "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."
- "Life for ordinary barons in Outremer Jerusalem was probably better than for kings in Europe, where even potentates wore unlaundered wool and lived in bare-stone draughty keeps with rough furniture."
- "Anyone expecting such a speech has forgotten that Trump’s first impulse is to please. He is constitutionally incapable of displeasing a live audience, let alone a foreign potentate who has recently lassoed him with a golden chain."
- "Bad news for a certain kind of pedantic patriot (look away now, Jacob Rees-Mogg). Prince Charles has debased the English language – and in a letter to a foreign potentate, no less."
- "The place in question was the stretch of Campanian coastline around the Bay of Naples. Originally a quiet retreat of rugged cliffs and healing thermal springs, by the middle of the first century B.C., the bay was teeming with military potentates, spendthrift aristocrats and the people who could afford to keep up with them."
Etymology
From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potentātus (“rule, political power”), from Latin potēns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“to be able”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: potentat, -, potentātus, potēns
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpoʊ.tən.teɪt/
- British English: /ˈpəʊ.tən.teɪt/