potentate

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Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈpəʊ.tən.teɪt/
• (America) IPA: /ˈpoʊ.tən.teɪt/

Noun

potentate (plural potentates)

1. A powerful leader; a monarch; a ruler.
   • 1592, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, act iii, scene 2

     But Kings and mightieſt Potentates muſt die,
     For that's the end of humane miſerie.

   • 1900, Theodore Dreiser, "Sister Carrie"

     She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate as the treasures of his harem.

2. A powerful polity or institution.
3. (derogatory) A self-important person.

Translations

• French: potentat, podestat
• German: Potentat, Potentatin
• Italian: podestà, condottiere
• Portuguese: potentado, soberano
• Russian: властели́н
• Spanish: líder, potentado, podestá, líder máximo, capo

Adjective

potentate

1. (obsolete) Regnant, powerful, dominant.

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