sovereign
Other forms: sovereigns; sovereignly
Put simply, your sovereign is your king or queen. George III was the sovereign of Great Britain and her colonies — including the American ones. At least he was until a little thing called the Revolutionary War upset everything.
Sovereign as an adjective can be used to indicate the ultimate power of a state, whether a monarchy or not, as in "Peru exercised its sovereign rights to all minerals within its borders." A sovereign is also a British gold coin with a face value of one pound sterling (with the monarch's face on it). But don't sell it for a pound, because it's worth its weight in gold — quite literally — which is a lot more than a pound is worth.
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a nation's ruler or head of state usually by hereditary rightsynonyms: crowned head, monarchtypes:Capetiana member of the Capetian dynastyemperorthe male ruler of an empireMerovingiana member of the Merovingian dynastyempressa woman emperor or the wife of an emperorHoly Roman Emperorsovereign of the Holy Roman EmpireKaiser, kaiserthe title of the Holy Roman Emperors or the emperors of Austria or of Germany until 1918King of Francethe sovereign ruler of FranceKing of the Germansthe sovereign ruler of the Germanstype of:chief of state, head of statethe chief public representative of a country who may also be the head of government
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(of political bodies) not controlled by outside forces“a sovereign state”synonyms: autonomous, independent, self-governingfreeable to act at will; not hampered; not under compulsion or restraint
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greatest in status or authority or power
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Vocabulary lists containing sovereign
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