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
At nChain’s London offices, Dr. Wright, an Australian computer scientist, was treated as a sort of philosopher king.
From New York Times • May 21, 2024
He’s not only, well, as of a week ago, a multibillionaire crypto entrepreneur; he’s also this philosopher king who signs on to these very crypto-friendly ideologies like effective altruism.
From Slate • Nov. 14, 2022
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
The national Assembly, from respect to the memory of the philosopher king, had preserved to Luckner the pension of 60,000 francs which had been paid to him during the Revolution.
From History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution by Ryde, H. T.
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.
