Definitions

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

  • noun A male member of a royal family other than the monarch, especially a son of the monarch.
  • noun A man who is a ruler of a principality.
  • noun A hereditary male ruler; a king.
  • noun A nobleman of varying status or rank.
  • noun An outstanding man, especially in a particular group or class.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sovereign; a king; by extension, a royal personage of either sex.
  • noun The title of the ruler of a principality: as, the Prince of Waldeck; the former Princes of Orange.
  • noun A title of nobility in certain countries on the continent, superior to duke: as, Prince Bismarck; Prince of Condé.
  • noun A courtesy title given to non-regnant members of royal families, and often confined to the younger sons of the sovereign: as, Prince Arthur (of Great Britain); Prince Henry (of Prussia); the eldest sons are usually called prince with a territorial title (as Prince of Wales, in Great Britain; Prince of Naples, in Italy), crown prince (Greece), prince imperial (Austria, Germany, etc.), prince royal (Denmark, Sweden, etc.), or duke with a territorial title (as Duke of Sparta, in Greece; Duke of Brabant, in Belgium).
  • noun A courtesy title given in some relations to dukes, marquises, and earls in Great Britain. See the quotation.
  • noun One who is preëminent in his class or profession: as, a merchant prince; a prince of good fellows.
  • noun A title of the emperor of Austria (as Grand Prince of Transylvania).
  • To play the prince; put on a stately arrogance: with a complementary it.

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

  • intransitive verb rare To play the prince.
  • noun The one of highest rank; one holding the highest place and authority; a sovereign; a monarch; -- originally applied to either sex, but now rarely applied to a female.
  • noun The son of a king or emperor, or the issue of a royal family.
  • noun A title belonging to persons of high rank, differing in different countries. In England it belongs to dukes, marquises, and earls, but is given to members of the royal family only. In Italy a prince is inferior to a duke as a member of a particular order of nobility; in Spain he is always one of the royal family.
  • noun The chief of any body of men; one at the head of a class or profession; one who is preëminent
  • noun a long double-breasted frock coat for men.
  • noun See under Blood, Consort, and Darkness.
  • noun the oldest son of the English sovereign.
  • noun (Bot.) a name given to two annual herbs (Amarantus caudatus and Polygonum orientale), with apetalous reddish flowers arranged in long recurved panicled spikes.
  • noun (Bot.) See Pipsissewa.

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

  • noun A non-royal high title of nobility, especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.
  • noun A common name of the mushroom Agaricus augustus.
  • noun A type of court card used in Tarot cards, the equivalent to the Jack.

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

  • noun a male member of a royal family other than the sovereign (especially the son of a sovereign)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin prīnceps; see per in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman, Old French prince, from Latin princeps ("first head"), from primus ("first") + capere ("seize, take").

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