Sovereign

How to spell sovereign

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sovereign

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sovereign mean?

1. adjectivePossessing supreme or ultimate power, especially as a self-governing state free from outside control.
2. nounA supreme ruler, especially a king or queen.
3. nounA former British gold coin originally worth one pound.

Sovereign in a sentence

• adjective

  The treaty recognised the country as a fully sovereign nation.

• noun

  The document required the signature of the reigning sovereign.

• noun

  The collector paid a small fortune for a Victorian gold sovereign.

• adjective

  Parliament insisted that it held sovereign authority over taxation.

• noun

  Citizens swore loyalty to their sovereign at the coronation.

• noun

  A single sovereign once represented a full pound in gold.

Where does sovereign come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1300s from Old French soverain, which described a person or thing standing above all others. That French word came in turn from an unrecorded Vulgar Latin form superanus, built on the Latin super, meaning simply 'above' or 'over', so the original idea was straightforwardly 'the one on top'. From the start it carried two threads that survive today: the adjective sense of supreme, ranking-above-all authority, and the noun sense of the supreme ruler who holds that authority. The peculiar spelling is the great trap: the original word had no 'g' at all, and the letter was inserted by medieval scribes who wrongly associated the word with 'reign' (from Latin regnum, 'kingdom'), assuming a king's rule must share that root. It does not, yet that mistaken 'g' has stuck for centuries, which is exactly why the silent -eign ending catches so many writers out.

How the word is built

• sover- (from Latin super: above, over)
• -eign (an inserted, unetymological spelling on the model of 'reign')