Definitions

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

  • noun One who reigns over a state or territory, usually for life and by hereditary right, especially.
  • noun A sole and absolute ruler.
  • noun A sovereign, such as a king or empress, often with constitutionally limited authority.
  • noun One that commands or rules.
  • noun One that surpasses others in power or preeminence.
  • noun A monarch butterfly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The chief of a monarchy; a supreme governor for life, entitled variously emperor (or empress), king (or queen), czar (or czarina), sultan, shah, etc.; primarily, a sole or autocratic ruler of a state, but in modern times generally a hereditary sovereign with more or less limited powers. See monarchy.
  • noun Any possessor of absolute power or superiority; one who or that which holds a dominating or preëminent position, literally or figuratively: as, the oak is the monarch of the forest.
  • noun Synonyms King, etc. (see prince), potentate, autocrat, despot.

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

  • noun A sole or supreme ruler; a sovereign; the highest ruler; an emperor, king, queen, prince, or chief.
  • noun One superior to all others of the same kind.
  • noun A patron deity or presiding genius.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A very large red and black butterfly (Danais Plexippus); -- called also milkweed butterfly and monarch butterfly.
  • adjective Superior to others; preëminent; supreme; ruling.

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

  • noun The ruler of an absolute monarchy or the head of state of a constitutional monarchy.
  • noun The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, found in North America, so called because of the designs on its wings.

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

  • noun large migratory American butterfly having deep orange wings with black and white markings; the larvae feed on milkweed
  • noun a nation's ruler or head of state usually by hereditary right

Etymologies

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

[Middle English monarke, from Old French monarque, from Late Latin monarcha, from Greek monarkhos : mono-, mono- + arkhein, to rule.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin monarchia, from Ancient Greek μονάρχης (monarchēs), variant of μόναρχος (monarchos, "sole ruler"), from 'μόνος (monos, "only") + ἀρχός (archos, "leader").

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