sovereignty
[sov-rin-tee, suhv-]
- the quality or state of being sovereign, or of having supreme power or authority.
- the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign;royal rank or position; royalty.
- supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community.
- rightful status, independence, or prerogative.
- a sovereign or independent state, community, or political unit.
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Origin of sovereignty
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sovereignty
Contemporary Examples
“Sovereignty, I argued, cannot be conceived as the right to kill millions of innocent people,” Lemkin wrote in his notebooks.
It is now a so called Crown Dependency, meaning it falls under the sovereignty of the British Crown, but is not part of the U.K.
The tagline for the Museum is “Paz, Memoria, y Sobernía”: Peace, Memory and Sovereignty.
The Never-Ending Falklands War: In Buenos Aires, A Museum's Selective HistoryMichael Luongo
August 30, 2014
Despite competing claims made by the British government and nearby Antigua, the rock island maintained its sovereignty.
The framers in 1787 were wary of sovereignty, and tried to divide, distance, check and balance its exercise.
Historical Examples
We will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale.
All the money, all the sovereignty, would be his; he henceforth would reign.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
And whether he would or not nobody could tell; it was all sovereignty.
The American MindBliss Perry
But the duration of their sovereignty was as a summer cloud or morning dew.
It came about through Don John of Austria's dreams of sovereignty.
The Historical Nights' EntertainmentRafael Sabatini
sovereignty
- supreme and unrestricted power, as of a state
- the position, dominion, or authority of a sovereign
- an independent state
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sovereignty
n.
mid-14c., "pre-eminence," from Anglo-French sovereynete, Old French souverainete, from soverain (see sovereign (adj.)). Meaning "authority, rule, supremacy of power or rank" is recorded from late 14c.; sense of "existence as an independent state" is from 1715.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
sovereignty
[(sov-ruhn-tee, sov-uhr-uhn-tee)]
A nation or state's supreme power within its borders. A government might respond, for example, to criticism from foreign governments of its treatment of its own citizens by citing its rights of sovereignty.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.