Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A high officer in a Muslim government, especially in the Ottoman Empire.
Wiktionary
- n. A high-ranking official or minister in an Islamic government, especially in the Ottoman Empire.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A councilor of state; a high executive officer in Turkey and other Oriental countries.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a high official in a Muslim government (especially in the Ottoman Empire)
Etymologies
- From Turkish vezir (plausibly via French visir, vizir or Spanish visir), from Arabic وزير (wazīr, "helper, aide, minister"), "one who bears (the burden of office)". (Wiktionary)
- Turkish vezir, from Arabic wazīr, burdened, minister, from 'āzara, to help, derived form of 'azara, to surround; see אzr in Semitic roots or from wazara, to carry a burden; see wzr in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The leading passion of the vizier was the love of receiving presents.”
“The establishment of a vizier is a fundamental law of despotism.”
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
“In the reign of Meneptah of the nineteenth dynasty the vizier was a native of Bashan, Ben-Mazana by name, whose father was called Yu the elder.”
“He took around with him on his rambles his vizier, Giafar (a vizier is a composite of a chauffeur, a secretary of state, and a night-and-day bank), and old Uncle Mesrour, his executioner, who toted a snickersnee.”
“Elkanah that was next to the king -- that is, the vizier or prime minister (Ge 41: 40; Es 10: 3).”
“The two tusks depicted on 1000 year old (and older) Islamic chess pieces of the "vizier," "farzin" or "wazir" evolved into the Bishop's mitre (in Western chess) as the Arabic version of chess spread into Europe and was adopted by the European royal courts.”
“if your slave may be so honoured as to speak in your presence, a vizier should be a person of great tact; he should be able to draw the line as nicely as I do when I shave your sublime head, leaving not a vestige of the hair, yet entering not upon the skin.”
“He also spoke of him by his title of "vizier," which he declared he had never forfeited the right to use; and he also stated that he had only entered Epirus as a peace-maker.”
“Nay, good vizier, that is as a last resource, for it is forbidden by the laws of the Prophet.”
“(shallit -- or "vizier" or even "sultan"), in fact, "the governor," and also the one who "sold grain to all the people of the land.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vizier’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Words I've found in reading.
paronomasia, spatulate, dun, cull, din, anthetic, thaumaturgic, natation, fettle, diurnal, simulacrum, propaedeutic and 14 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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A Myriad of Irii
Iris varieties.
abbondanza, abiqua falls, about town, above the clouds, acadian miss, acapulco gold, act of kindness, adoregon, aegean wind, afternoon in rio, aggressively forward, agua fresca and 721 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
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Words of the Times
Words discovered while reading The New York Times, each with a citation from the paper.
testilying, ghost talk, apneist, solastalgia, izakaya, hooker, telectroscope, airflyte, phomance, bromhidrosis, stinky feet, cupping and 482 more...
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Honorifics
emperor, empress, king, queen, monarch, prince, princess, admiral, general, herald, warden, patriarch and 68 more...
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bearing words
talent, tolerate, telamon, toll, philately, talion, retaliate, tantalize, atlantic, atlas, ablative, allative and 44 more...
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Archaic (or sounds that way)
goldwine, scop, skald, tenterhook, wassail, mazer, metheglin, cyser, pyment, perry, heresiarch, palatinate and 37 more...
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Noblesse Oblige
Noble, leadership and ranking titles.
voivod, vavasour, duke, count, earl, herzog, viscount, khan, viceroy, czar, castellan, châtelain and 43 more...
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dcscot's Words
solitary, melancholy, angst, corduroy, ocular, ocular, panjandrum, vizier, fumble, prankster, alligator, serendipity and 41 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for vizier.

john “One of Dyson’s daughters, the Internet vizier Esther Dyson, says her father raised her without a television so she would read more, and has always been ‘just as interested in talking to’ the latest graduate student to make the pilgrimage to Princeton ‘as he is the famous person at the next table.’�?
The New York Times, The Civil Heretic, by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 25, 2009 Mar 26, 2009