Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A succession of rulers from the same family or line.
  • noun A family or group that maintains power for several generations.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A government; a sovereignty.
  • noun A race or succession of sovereigns of the same line or family governing a particular country: as, the successive dynasties of Egypt or of France.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Sovereignty; lordship; dominion.
  • noun A race or succession of kings, of the same line or family; the continued lordship of a race of rulers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A series of rulers or dynasts from one family.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dynastie, from Old French, from Late Latin dynastīa, lordship, from Greek dunasteia, from dunastēs, lord; see dynast.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin dynastia, from Ancient Greek δυναστεία (dunasteia, "power, dominion").

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