elite

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“
This told the country that the elite are above the law, no matter how serious the crimes.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status: "In addition to notions of social equality there was much emphasis on the role of elites and of heroes within them” (Times Literary Supplement).
  2. noun The best or most skilled members of a group: the football team's elite.
  3. noun A size of type on a typewriter, equal to 12 characters per linear inch.

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Examples (50)

  • She believed Ragley College was for the elite, the leaders and thinkers of the next generation. —  EQMM, July2006
  • That book is all about a ruling-elite, their long-running global agendas, and their enormous power to co-opt, purchase, intimidate, or coerce all who matter into silence, or into becoming their 'circus clowns'. —  Dandelion Salad
  • For the elite is quite obviously not doing their job well. —  NUEVA EUROPA- Nueva Eurabia
  • This told the country that the elite are above the law, no matter how serious the crimes. —  Seeing the Forest
  • That is on top of the money the elite are already taxing away from us. —  Recently Uploaded Slideshows
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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elite:   elites
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French élite, from Old French eslite, from feminine past participle of eslire, to choose, from Latin ēligere; see elect.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English eliten (past participle elit), from Old French elit, eslit (French élit), past participle of elire, eslire (French élire), choose, from Latin eligere, choose, elect: see elect. Cf. élite.
  2. Scots also elyte (obsolete); from Middle English elite, from Old French elit, eslit, elected, past participle of elire, eslire, elect: see elite, v., and elect, v. and n.
 

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