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sovereign
EntityQ2304859· pop 23· linked from 362 articles

Also known as potentate

Sovereign is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

10 sections
Contents
  • Head of state
  • Chivalric orders
  • Municipal government
  • Characteristics
  • History
  • Weakening power
  • Legacy
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Sovereign is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.

The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or head of state to head of municipal government or head of a chivalric order. As a result, the word sovereignty has more recently also come to mean independence or autonomy.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sovereign” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.