viceroy
Americannoun
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a person appointed to rule a country or province as the deputy of the sovereign.
the viceroy of India.
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a brightly marked American butterfly, Limenitis archippus, closely mimicking the monarch butterfly in coloration.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of viceroy
1515–25; < Middle French, equivalent to vice- vice- + roy king < Latin rēgem, accusative of rēx
Explanation
A viceroy is appointed by a king to be in charge of a country or province. When a country is ruled by a monarch — a king or queen — and controls colonies or provinces, the monarch can’t govern all those remote areas personally. That's where a viceroy comes in. The king or queen appoints a representative to rule over the colony or province. This viceroy is the most powerful person in this region, kind of like a king or president. The difference is that the viceroy has to answer to the monarch, his boss back in the mother country.
Vocabulary lists containing viceroy
Mythology
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South America - Middle School
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South America - Introductory
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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.
“And the viceroy Mike Davis tells me — since it doesn’t actually say consecutive — that, I don’t know, maybe we do it again in ‘28?
From Salon • Dec. 16, 2024
The last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, set the date as 15 August 1947.
From BBC • Aug. 14, 2022
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the recently appointed last viceroy of British India, had not yet revealed where the new borders, which created East and West Pakistan with India wedged between the two, would be.
From New York Times • Aug. 14, 2022
The viceroy initially offered two obelisks from Alexandria, the so-called Cleopatra’s needles, but Champollion suggested the Luxor Obelisks as a substitute, because of the exquisite quality of their hieroglyphics.
From Washington Post • Jul. 1, 2022
Accurately he was only regent of the Winds, viceroy of the gods.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
