suzerainty

American  

[soo-zuh-rin-tee, -rayn-] / ˈsu zə rɪn ti, -ˌreɪn- /

noun

• suzerainties
  plural

1. the position or authority of a suzerain.

2. the domain or area subject to a suzerain.

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suzerainty British  

/ ˈsuːzərəntɪ /

noun

1. the position, power, or dignity of a suzerain

2. the relationship between suzerain and subject

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• suzerainties
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of suzerainty

1815–25; < French suzeraineté, Middle French suserenete, equivalent to suseren suzerain + -ete -ity

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

suzerainty suzerainties

He focused instead on securing U.S. concessions on Taiwan, aiming to achieve suzerainty over this de facto independent island and its high-tech industries, but reportedly came away with little or nothing on that score.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Today, he is the absolute ruler of an impoverished but militarily dangerous nation protected by his own arms and the suzerainty of China.

From Washington Post ● May 1, 2018

Iberia, much of Italy, the Low Countries, the Americas from California and Florida to Buenos Aires, the Caribbean and the Philippines were all under his suzerainty.

From Economist ● Jul. 10, 2014

Since Norway was at the time under Danish suzerainty, and Finland was a province of Sweden, this made all Scandinavia into the Protestant stronghold it remains to this day.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2014

During the reigns of Clovis’s sons they again turned their eyes on Germany, and imposed their suzerainty upon the Franks on the right bank.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 1 "Franciscans" to "French Language" by Various

Then, during the Cambrian explosion, “The denizens of the seas grew to an inch, then a foot, then a meter, in the form of terrifying fishes that established suzerainties in the depths.”

From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2016

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