sovereign
Americannoun
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sovereigns
plural
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a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.
-
a person who has supreme power or authority.
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a group or body of persons or a state having sovereign authority.
- Synonyms:
- government
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a gold coin of the United Kingdom, equal to one pound sterling: went out of circulation after 1914.
adjective
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belonging to or characteristic of a sovereign or sovereign authority; royal.
-
having supreme rank, power, or authority.
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supreme; preeminent; indisputable.
a sovereign right.
- Synonyms:
- predominant, principal, paramount, chief
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greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
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being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
-
efficacious; potent.
a sovereign remedy.
noun
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a person exercising supreme authority, esp a monarch
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a former British gold coin worth one pound sterling
adjective
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supreme in rank or authority
a sovereign lord
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excellent or outstanding
a sovereign remedy
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of, relating to, or characteristic of a sovereign
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independent of outside authority
a sovereign state
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonsovereignnoun
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subsovereignnoun
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undersovereignnoun
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quasi-sovereignadjective
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supersovereignadjective
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unsovereignadjective
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nonsovereignlyadverb
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sovereignlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sovereign
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English soverain, altered by influence of reign, from Old French soverain, from Vulgar Latin superānus (unrecorded), equivalent to Latin super- super- + -ānus -an
Explanation
Put simply, your sovereign is your king or queen. George III was the sovereign of Great Britain and her colonies — including the American ones. At least he was until a little thing called the Revolutionary War upset everything. Sovereign as an adjective can be used to indicate the ultimate power of a state, whether a monarchy or not, as in "Peru exercised its sovereign rights to all minerals within its borders." A sovereign is also a British gold coin with a face value of one pound sterling (with the monarch's face on it). But don't sell it for a pound, because it's worth its weight in gold — quite literally — which is a lot more than a pound is worth.
Vocabulary lists containing sovereign
"On Women's Right to Vote" by Susan B. Anthony
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American Born Chinese
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Chains
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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.
See Examples For:
The dignity of sovereign womanhood aside, it’s also a genuine life partnership concern.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
For decades, governments could rely on predictable buy-and-hold investors to snap up their sovereign debt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Amid the rising angst over the sovereign debt selloff, global investors are buying a more-than-usual amount of bond funds.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
"The countries of Latin America have the sovereign right to freely choose their partners and to develop external cooperation based on their own national interests," the embassy wrote on X.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
But presently I gave command to my officers to flay those sheep the bronze cut down, and make burnt offerings of flesh to the gods below—to sovereign Death, to pale Persephone.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Normally a potential reluctance among those three sovereigns to buy U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
These developments don’t threaten dollar dominance today or tomorrow, but they reflect a genuine, if gradual, de-risking impulse among sovereigns who have concluded that some diversification away from dollar concentration is prudent.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
Tim Ash, senior strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management, pointed out in a posting on X, that sovereigns do not request swap lines lightly.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026
Spreads on the best-rated Middle Eastern 10-year dollar-denominated sovereigns were as much as 15 basis points wider early last week before moving back down Thursday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
Dr. Bright fidgeted with the sovereigns, as though worried that they might be taken back.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
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.
