ARISTOCRACY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Aristocracy

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ˌɛrəstˈɑkrəsi/ Listen

noun

Aristocracy n. (pl. aristocracies)

Government by the best citizens.

A ruling body composed of the best citizens. (Obs.) "In the Senate Right not our quest in this, I will protest them To all the world, no aristocracy."

A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order; an oligarchy. "The aristocracy of Venice hath admitted so many abuses, trough the degeneracy of the nobles, that the period of its duration seems approach."

The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class or patrician order; (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect.

See images of 'Aristocracy'

Etymology of 'Aristocracy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Aristocracy" Quotes from Famous Books

... schools where I should meet the scions of the aristocracy. I was taught to dance, to ride, and to play. I was allowed spending money at will, and could call for champagne, and drink it, with any of my companions. At the end of my college life, I was sent upon ...

— The Desert Home - The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... built more than six hundred years before, and occupied at the time of its destruction by the aristocracy of Rome. Triumphal arches were erected there in honor of Caligula and Nero, who probably honored it by visits. It possessed costly temples, handsome theatres and other public buildings, luxurious residences, and all the ostentatious ...

— Historic Tales, Volume 11 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... father of three pretty daughters must expect some scenes like these, and that the only thing to do was to get rid of the objectionable suitors as civilly as possible. He was also too much of an American to put on any of the high-stepping airs of the European aristocracy. Here it is simply one sovereign proposing for the daughter of another, and generally the young people practically arrange it all before asking any consent in the case. After all, Mr. Fox had only paid his daughter the highest compliment in his power, and if any other of his clerks had ...

— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe

... prophet as Henry Ward Beecher foresaw a tragic day when the bivouac of capital would be set against the camp of labor. And lesser seers are not lacking who freely predict, even for our democratic land, a desperate rebellion of a proletariat of poverty against an aristocracy of wealth. ...

— Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association • Intercollegiate Peace Association

... restriction of pensions and taxing of luxuries soon aroused the opposition of the aristocracy, and the weak but good-hearted King asked his minister to resign. Both wife and daughter felt the blow keenly, for both idolized him, so much so that the mother feared lest she be supplanted by her daughter. Madame de Stael says of her ...

— Lives of Girls Who Became Famous • Sarah Knowles Bolton

More quotes...