Word.ws English Dictionary

margraves

margraves is the plural of margrave.

Meaning of margrave

Noun

margrave (plural margraves)

  1. (historical) A feudal era military-administrative officer of comital rank in the Carolingian empire and some successor states, originally in charge of a border area.
    • 1973: Among pulverised heads of stone margraves and electors, reconnoitering a likely-looking cabbage patch, all of a sudden Slothrop picks up the scent of an unmistakable no it can’t be yes it is it’s a REEFER! — Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
  2. (historical) A hereditary ruling prince in certain feudal states of the Holy Roman Empire and elsewhere; the titular equivalent became known as marquis or marquess.
    • The Margrave of Bruges was their head.1516, Thomas More, chapter 1, in Utopia

See all 3 meanings of margrave

Questions about margraves

What is margraves the plural of?
Margraves is the plural of margrave.

Words near margraves in the dictionary

  1. margrafs
  2. margravate
  3. margravates
  4. margrave
  5. margravely
  6. margraves
  7. margraveship
  8. margraveships
  9. margravial
  10. margraviate
  11. margraviates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: margraves (page history and authors); margrave (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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