First recorded in 1920–25
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There he met Peter Thiel, the self-styled philosopher king of the right-wing tech community.
From Barron's • Dec. 24, 2025
He’s a gentle philosopher king and a spiritual seeker who wants to leave a “service legacy on the Earth,” he said.
From Washington Post • Sep. 27, 2021
Influenced by libertarian Ayn Rand and Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, Thiel, then in his early 30s, carried himself like a contrarian philosopher king.
From Salon • Jun. 25, 2021
I couldn’t agree with Lear, and it wasn’t because I doubted his ET philosopher king cosmology.
From Slate • Jul. 17, 2019
One can but divine its beginnings in the mysterious priesthood of Quetzalcoatl, or trace it in the traditions of the philosopher king of Tezcuco, and the sceptical Incas of whom Garcilasso and others tell us.
From Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru by R?ville, Albert
Definitions 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.
