suzerainty
Americannoun
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suzerainties
plural
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the position or authority of a suzerain.
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the domain or area subject to a suzerain.
noun
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the position, power, or dignity of a suzerain
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the relationship between suzerain and subject
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of suzerainty
1815–25; < French suzeraineté, Middle French suserenete, equivalent to suseren suzerain + -ete -ity
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:
He focused instead on securing U.S. concessions on Taiwan, aiming to achieve suzerainty over this de facto independent island and its high-tech industries, but reportedly came away with little or nothing on that score.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Today, he is the absolute ruler of an impoverished but militarily dangerous nation protected by his own arms and the suzerainty of China.
From Washington Post ● May 1, 2018
Iberia, much of Italy, the Low Countries, the Americas from California and Florida to Buenos Aires, the Caribbean and the Philippines were all under his suzerainty.
From Economist ● Jul. 10, 2014
Since Norway was at the time under Danish suzerainty, and Finland was a province of Sweden, this made all Scandinavia into the Protestant stronghold it remains to this day.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2014
On the northern coast of Vitilevu her influence was felt as far west as Mba, and she exercised a nominal suzerainty over Somosomo, the state then paramount over the eastern half of Vanualevu.
From The Fijians A Study of the Decay of Custom by Basil Thomson
Then, during the Cambrian explosion, “The denizens of the seas grew to an inch, then a foot, then a meter, in the form of terrifying fishes that established suzerainties in the depths.”
From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2016
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