What does "retinue" mean?

A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important.

What is a synonym for "retinue"?

Common synonyms include: cortege, cortege, entourage, adherents, attendance, attendant.

Pronounced //ˈɹɛ.tɪ.njuː//.

//ˈɹɛ.tɪ.njuː// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important.
"the queen’s retinues"
2
the group following and attending to some important person wordnet
3
A group of warriors or nobles accompanying a king or other leader; comitatus.
"Then Igor looked up at the bright sun and saw all his warriors / darkened from it by a shadow. / And Igor said to his retinue: / “Brothers and companions! It is better to be slain than taken captive. / Mount, brothers, your swift horses that we may glimpse the Blue Don.”"
4
A service relationship. obsolete

"The queen began to fear that an assassin was among her retinue, leading her to expel them one-by-one until there was nobody left to protect her."

From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue, past participle of retenir (“retain”). Doublet of ritenuto.

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