sovereign
Americannoun
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sovereigns
plural
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a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.
-
a person who has supreme power or authority.
-
a group or body of persons or a state having sovereign authority.
- Synonyms:
- government
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a gold coin of the United Kingdom, equal to one pound sterling: went out of circulation after 1914.
adjective
-
belonging to or characteristic of a sovereign or sovereign authority; royal.
-
having supreme rank, power, or authority.
-
supreme; preeminent; indisputable.
a sovereign right.
- Synonyms:
- predominant, principal, paramount, chief
-
greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
-
being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
-
efficacious; potent.
a sovereign remedy.
noun
-
a person exercising supreme authority, esp a monarch
-
a former British gold coin worth one pound sterling
adjective
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supreme in rank or authority
a sovereign lord
-
excellent or outstanding
a sovereign remedy
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of a sovereign
-
independent of outside authority
a sovereign state
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonsovereignnoun
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subsovereignnoun
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undersovereignnoun
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quasi-sovereignadjective
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supersovereignadjective
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unsovereignadjective
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nonsovereignlyadverb
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sovereignlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sovereign
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English soverain, altered by influence of reign, from Old French soverain, from Vulgar Latin superānus (unrecorded), equivalent to Latin super- super- + -ānus -an
Explanation
Put simply, your sovereign is your king or queen. George III was the sovereign of Great Britain and her colonies — including the American ones. At least he was until a little thing called the Revolutionary War upset everything. Sovereign as an adjective can be used to indicate the ultimate power of a state, whether a monarchy or not, as in "Peru exercised its sovereign rights to all minerals within its borders." A sovereign is also a British gold coin with a face value of one pound sterling (with the monarch's face on it). But don't sell it for a pound, because it's worth its weight in gold — quite literally — which is a lot more than a pound is worth.
Vocabulary lists containing sovereign
"On Women's Right to Vote" by Susan B. Anthony
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Chains
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American Born Chinese
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
French government bonds continued to hold the limelight in sovereign debt markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Nevertheless, "the situation is very different from the sovereign debt crisis of the early 2010s", he added, when investors selling Italian or Spanish debt almost automatically bought Bunds.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026
This troubling narrative was outlined by Schmidt during an interview on the podcast released Wednesday by the chief executive of Norway’s $2 trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, Nicolai Tangen.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
The couple has pleaded not guilty to the allegations and both have argued to have the case thrown out on the grounds that they qualify for sovereign immunity.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
King Zwel- ithini, supported by Chief Buthelezi, called for an autonomous and sovereign KwaZulu, and discouraged everyone in his province from voting.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
One-time “fragile five” sovereigns like South Africa or Turkey have gotten their houses substantially in order in recent years.
From Barron's ● Apr. 20, 2026
Tim Ash, senior strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management, pointed out in a posting on X, that sovereigns do not request swap lines lightly.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026
Dina McCormick will work on “partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta’s infrastructure,” according to Zuckerberg.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
—Eurozone government bond yields were little changed in early trade, after a week where there was total issuance of 66.3 billion euros from a variety of sovereigns via auctions and syndicated deals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Anyone tempted by those thousand sovereigns had better find a place neither on land nor on water.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
