chief lord

chief lord noun: synonym of overlord: the lord of a fee immediately owed personal service or rent by a tenant, a tenant's liege lord.

Noun

chief lord (plural chief lords)

(historical) Synonym of overlord: the lord of a fee immediately owed personal service or rent by a tenant, a tenant's liege lord.
- Forinsec, or Extrinsec, or Regal Service, was a Service which did not belong to the chief Lord, but to the King.1728, E. Chambers, Cyclopaedia, Service
- Chief lord, the feudal lord, or lord of an honour on whom others depend.1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 183
Synonyms:

overlord
(inexact) Synonym of overlord: a lord over other lords, a lord paramount.
- The chief lord over all other lords was the king.
Synonyms:

overlord

Most feudal obligations were owed to the chief lord of the estate, but others were owed only and directly to the king of the realm.
land-male, a reserved rent charged upon a piece of land by the chief lord of the fee, or a subsequent mesne owner.1857, Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English:

plural	chief lords

What does chief lord mean?: Chief lord means synonym of overlord: the lord of a fee immediately owed personal service or rent by a tenant, a tenant's liege lord.
How do you use chief lord in a sentence?: Most feudal obligations were owed to the chief lord of the estate, but others were owed only and directly to the king of the realm.
What part of speech is chief lord?: Chief lord is a noun.
What is the plural of chief lord?: The plural of chief lord is chief lords.

Adapted from Wiktionary: chief lord (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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