earl

¹ American  

[url] / ɜrl /

noun

1. a British nobleman of a rank below that of marquis and above that of viscount: called count for a time after the Norman conquest. The wife of an earl is a countess.

2. (in Anglo-Saxon England) a governor of one of the great divisions of England, including East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex.

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Earl ² American  

[url] / ɜrl /

Or Earle

noun

1. a male given name: from the old English word meaning “noble.”

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earl British  

/ ɜːl /

noun

1. Female equivalent: countess.  (in the British Isles) a nobleman ranking below a marquess and above a viscount

2. (in Anglo-Saxon England) a royal governor of any of the large divisions of the kingdom, such as Wessex

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Etymology

Origin of earl

before 900; Middle English erl, Old English eorl; cognate with Old Saxon erl man, Old Norse jarl chieftain

Example Sentences

They include the alabaster monument to John, seventh earl of Arundel, a high-profile casualty of the Hundred Years’ War with France.

From The Wall Street Journal

Viewers eventually learn Sophie’s servitude is forced after her parentage is revealed — she’s the illegitimate daughter of an earl.

From Los Angeles Times

“We hoped Ashton would give up, but he had his spies watching us, always. Some awful baroness . . . an earl of something or other . . . ,” Mater Lumley said.

From Literature

We may not be earls or billionaires, but we can eat like them.

From Salon

But the longed-for comeuppance of the brutish earl is as much an attraction to the series as Ms. Peckham.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• aristocrat
• blue blood
• emperor
• patrician