Word.ws English Dictionary

legates

legates is the plural of legate.

Meaning of legate

Noun (1)

legate (plural legates)

  1. A deputy representing the pope, specifically a papal ambassador sent on special ecclesiastical missions.
  2. An ambassador or messenger.
    • Moſt great and puiſant Monarke of the earth,
      Your Baſſoe wil accompliſh your beheſt:
      And ſhew your pleaſure to the Perſean,
      As fits the Legate of the ſtately Turke.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  3. The deputy of a provincial governor or general in ancient Rome.
    • Legate, I had the news last night—my cohort ordered home
      By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.1911, Rudyard Kipling, “The Roman Centurion’s Song”, in The History of England

Noun (2)

legate (plural legates)

  1. (obsolete) A legacy or bequest.

See all 6 meanings of legate

Proper noun capitalized: Legates

Legates

  1. (plural) plural of Legate

Questions about legates

What is legates the plural of?
Legates is the plural of legate.
What part of speech is legates?
Legates is a proper noun.

Words near legates in the dictionary

  1. legated
  2. legatee
  3. legatees
  4. legateeship
  5. legateeships
  6. legates
  7. legateship
  8. legateships
  9. legatine
  10. legating
  11. legation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: legates (page history and authors); Legates (page history and authors); legate (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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Cite this entry: “legates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/legates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.