Ghibelline
/ˈɡɪbɪlaɪn/US/ˈɡɪbəlin/
Ghibelline noun: in the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs and the Pope.
Noun
Ghibelline (plural Ghibellines)
- In the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs and the Pope.
- These two factions came to be called Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively. The Guelphs were the supporters of the Popes, the Ghibellines of the Emperors. The Guelphs upheld the temporal supremacy of the Pope: the Ghibellines would separate temporal from spiritual authority. The Guelphs resisted the...1878, Arthur Elam Haigh, The Political Theories of Dante: The Stanhope Prize Essay, 1878, Thos. Shrimpton & Co., page 6
- The Ghibellines gained power in Florence in 1249 and immediately banished the Guelphs. Ezzelino da Romano was one of the leaders of the Ghibelline movement and had a reputation for cruelty. He is depicted by Dante as a tyrant in The Divine Comedy.2012, Elizabeth K. Haller, Dante Aleghieri (1265—1321), Lister M. Matheson (editor), Icons of the Middle Ages, Volume 1, ABC-Clio (Greenwood) page 246
Ghibelline meaning in Arabic, Indonesian and Thai
Ghibelline in Arabic
- member of a medieval Italian faction that supported the German emperors
- غيبلين
Ghibelline in Indonesian
- member of a medieval Italian faction that supported the German emperors
- Ghibellin
Ghibelline in Thai
- member of a medieval Italian faction that supported the German emperors
- กิเบลลิโน gì-been-lí-noo
Examples of Ghibelline in a sentence
- These two factions came to be called Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively.1878, Arthur Elam Haigh, The Political Theories of Dante: The Stanhope Prize Essay, 1878, Thos. Shrimpton & Co., page 6:
- More specifically, Fastello is said to address those Ghibellines who resided in the Valdarno area.2019, Nicolino Applauso, Dante's Comedy and the Ethics of Invective in Medieval Italy, Rowman & Littlefield (Lexington Books), page 117:
Forms of Ghibelline
| plural | Ghibellines |
|---|
Origin of Ghibelline
From Italian ghibellino, from German Waiblingen, from Middle High German Wibellingen, the name of a castle in Swabia held by the Hohenstaufen dynasty (nowadays in the township of Waiblingen), from Old High German Weibilinga, Weibelingen, possibly a suffixed form of the personal name Wabilo, Wahilo. The emperor's supporters used the name as a rallying cry, which was probably introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, 1155—1190.
Words formed from Ghibelline
Questions about Ghibelline
- What does Ghibelline mean?
- Ghibelline means in the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs and the Pope.
- What is Ghibelline in Arabic?
- Ghibelline in Arabic is غيبلين. See Ghibelline meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use Ghibelline in a sentence?
- These two factions came to be called Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively.
- What part of speech is Ghibelline?
- Ghibelline is a noun.
- How do you pronounce Ghibelline?
- Ghibelline is pronounced /ˈɡɪbəlin/ (US).
- What is the plural of Ghibelline?
- The plural of Ghibelline is Ghibellines.
Words near Ghibelline in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Ghibelline (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Ghibelline.wav.
Cite this entry: “Ghibelline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ghibelline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.