Pentarchy

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Government by five persons.
  2. 2
    A governing body consisting of five persons.
  3. 3
    A federation of five nations, each under its own government or ruler.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A model of Church organization historically championed in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Etymology

From Late Latin pentarchia, from Ancient Greek πενταρχίᾱ (pentarkhíā), from πεντα- (penta-, “penta-, five”) + -αρχίᾱ (-arkhíā, “-archy, rule”), perhaps via Middle French pentarchie. Equivalent to pent- + -archy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.