Potentiary

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person invested with power or influence. archaic

    "[…] Tween Then Woon, a man of sense and prudence, after having been vested with the powers of a potentiary, has been ordered to proceed with a royal letter and presents."

Example

More examples

"[…] Tween Then Woon, a man of sense and prudence, after having been vested with the powers of a potentiary, has been ordered to proceed with a royal letter and presents."

Etymology

Has similar roots to potential; potent + -ary, with the addition of an i.

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