# prince

Pronunciation: say "PRINS" /pɹɪns/

## Noun

1. A male member of a royal family who is not the ruler, especially the son or grandson of a king or queen.
   - Simple: A son, grandson, or other male relative of a king or queen who does not rule.
   - _The prince accompanied the queen on her official visit to Canada._
   - _Several princes of the royal house served in the armed forces._
2. The male ruler or sovereign head of a principality, a small state ranking below a kingdom.
   - Simple: A man who rules a small country called a principality.
   - _The prince of the small Alpine state signed a treaty with his neighbors._
   - _A prince rules the tiny principality from his palace above the harbor._
4. A high title of nobility that is not royal, used especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.
   - Simple: A high noble title in some countries, given to important lords who are not kings.
   - _The prince ruled his estates almost independently of the crown._
   - _Wealthy princes of the Holy Roman Empire often acted as rulers in their own right._
5. A person who is preeminent or outstanding in a particular field; a truly great individual.
   - Simple: A person who is the best or most important in what they do.
   - _Among jazz musicians of his era, he was regarded as a prince of the trumpet._
   - _She praised him as a prince of letters whose essays shaped a generation._

## Noun

3. A sovereign ruler of a realm; a king or monarch holding supreme power, now chiefly in historical and political writing (formerly also used of a queen reigning in her own right). *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Any king or ruler of a country, used mostly when writing about history. It was once even used for a ruling queen.

## Verb

6. To behave or carry oneself in the grand, dignified manner of a prince. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To behave in a grand, noble way, as a royal son would.
7. To make a prince of someone, as if by transformation. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To change a person into a prince, as in a fairy tale.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A court card in some tarot decks, such as the Golden Dawn and Thoth decks, taking the place of the knight.
- (noun) A large edible mushroom, Agaricus augustus, with a brown scaly cap and a sweet, almond-like scent.
- (noun) Any of several brush-footed butterflies of the genus Rohana, found in the forests of Asia.

## Origin

From Middle English prince, borrowed through Anglo-Norman from Latin prīnceps ("first, foremost"), a compound of prīmus ("first") and capiō ("seize, take"). It is a doublet of princeps and principe, and it displaced native English words such as atheling.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/prince (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).