plenipotentiary
UK/ˌplɛn.ɪ.pəʊˈtɛn.ʃəɹ.i//plɛn.ɪ.poʊˈtɛn.ʃ(i)əɹ.i/
plenipotentiary noun: a person invested with full powers, especially as the diplomatic agent of a sovereign state, (originally) charged with handling a certain matter.
Noun
plenipotentiary (plural plenipotentiaries)
- A person invested with full powers, especially as the diplomatic agent of a sovereign state, (originally) charged with handling a certain matter.
- None but the like-minded can come plenipotentiary to our court.1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown
- Meeting him in the street and ignoring the foul bowler hat he wore on his walks abroad, you would have put him down as a Bishop in mufti or, at the least, a plenipotentiary at one of the better courts.1937, P. G. Wodehouse, 'Lord Emsworth and Others', Overlook, Woodstock: 2002, p 232.
Adjective
plenipotentiary (not comparable)
- Invested with full power.
- Near-synonyms: omnicompetent; omnipotent, almighty, all-powerful
- It was written of Henry George Ward, M.P. for Sheffield from 1837 to 1849, that "he was also much occupied with railway enterprise in the days of early speculation." This suggests a hard-bitten man of commerce, but Ward had served in the Diplomatic Service and he was Minister Plenipotentiary to...1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 209
- Synonyms:
- plenipotent, plenipotential, omnicompetent, omnipotent, almighty, all-powerful
- Of or relating to a plenipotentiary agent
plenipotentiary meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Indonesian
plenipotentiary in Bengali
- পূর্ণ ক্ষমতাপ্রাপ্ত প্রতিনিধি
plenipotentiary in Malayalam
- diplomat, dignitary, ambassador
- സ്ഥാനപതി, സ്ഥാനാപതി, പൂർണ്ണാധികാരം നല്കപ്പെട്ട സ്ഥാനപതി, രാജ്യതന്ത്രജ്ഞൻ, തന്ത്രശാലി, പ്രേഷകൻ
- plenary, unlimited, uncondition-al
- നിരുപാധിക, ഉപാധികളില്ലാത്ത, വ്യവസ്ഥകളില്ലാത്ത, അപരിമിത, അനിയന്ത്രിത, നിബന്ധനകളില്ലാത്ത
plenipotentiary in Kannada
- ಪೂರ್ಣಾಧಿಕಾರವುಳ್ಳ ರಾಯಭಾರಿ, ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರವುಳ್ಳ ನಿಯೋಗಿ, ಪೂರ್ಣಾಧಿಕಾರಿ
plenipotentiary in Indonesian
- person invested with supreme authority
- wali
Synonyms of plenipotentiary
Forms of plenipotentiary
| plural | plenipotentiaries |
|---|
Origin of plenipotentiary
From Medieval Latin plēnipotentiārius (“having full power”), Late Latin plēnipotēns, from plēnus (“full”) + potēns (“mighty, powerful”).
Words formed from plenipotentiary
- minister plenipotentiary
- plenipotentiaryship
Questions about plenipotentiary
- What does plenipotentiary mean?
- Plenipotentiary means a person invested with full powers, especially as the diplomatic agent of a sovereign state, (originally) charged with handling a certain matter.
- What is plenipotentiary in Bengali?
- Plenipotentiary in Bengali is পূর্ণ ক্ষমতাপ্রাপ্ত প্রতিনিধি. See Plenipotentiary meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is plenipotentiary?
- Plenipotentiary can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce plenipotentiary?
- Plenipotentiary is pronounced /ˌplɛn.ɪ.pəʊˈtɛn.ʃəɹ.i/ (UK).
- What is the plural of plenipotentiary?
- The plural of plenipotentiary is plenipotentiaries.
Words near plenipotentiary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: plenipotentiary (page history and authors); plenipotentiary (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plenipotentiary (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); plenipotentiary (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: en-us-plenipotentiary.ogg.
Cite this entry: “plenipotentiary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plenipotentiary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.