Principality
name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A region or sovereign nation headed by a prince or princess. countable
"At this time Russia consisted of a dozen or so principalities, which were frequently at war with one another."
- 2 territory ruled by a prince wordnet
- 3 A spiritual being, specifically in Christian angelology, the third lowest level of angels, ranked above archangels and below powers. countable
- 4 The state of being a prince or ruler; sovereignty, absolute authority. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 5 The state of being principal; pre-eminence. archaic, countable, uncountable
- 1 Wales
"The first information I have of a sermon at an association, in the Principality, is in the letter of 1703, which appoints one to be preached the following year."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of principality; any of the actual extant principalities. alt-of
"The affair led to a crisis in relations between France and the Principality, with the French Government overruling Prince Rainier by refusing to extend the mandate of Monaco's Chief Prosecutor"
Example
More examples"Andorra is a small principality situated between Spain and France."
Etymology
From Middle English principalte, principalite, from Anglo-Norman principalté, Middle French principalté, from Late Latin prīncipālitās, from Latin prīncipālis (“principal”) + -tās. Equivalent to principal + -ity.
From the mistaken belief that the Prince of Wales is the country's head of state; the historical Principality of Wales only made up a portion of the country of Wales.
Related phrases
More for "principality"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.