potentate
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of potentate
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin potentātus potentate, Latin: power, dominion. See potent 1, -ate 3
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.
Stripping away the amour propre of a nuclear-armed potentate is a dangerous business.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025
With the cabinet not having met since 2018, all power flows through him, and like a potentate he receives a string of local officials and foreign dignitaries at his retreat.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2025
At last year’s Barcelona Olympics, he was treated more as a potentate or rock star than a basketball player.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 23, 2022
Dr. Boardman’s father is the Wall Street potentate D. Dixon Boardman, her mother Pauline Pitt, a socially prominent decorator and philanthropist in Palm Beach.
From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2021
He thus became not only King of England, but was King of Denmark and Norway as well—the most powerful potentate in Christendom in his time.
From Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland by Russell, T. O.
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.
