Word.ws English Dictionary

porphyrogenitism

porphyrogenitism noun: the principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was born prior to it.

Noun

porphyrogenitism (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was born prior to it.
    • The doctrine of Porphyrogenitism, congenial to popular sentiment, and not without some foundation in principle, prevailed influentially and widely in many countries.1851, Francis Palgrave, The History of Normandy and of England
    • The only legitimate spouse for a Ptolemy was a princess of the royal house, and generally a daughter not of a crown prince, but of a consecrated king. The evidence of this porphyrogenitism in the dynasty is quite clear.1915, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, volume 2

Origin of porphyrogenitism

From porphyrogenite + -ism.

Questions about porphyrogenitism

What does porphyrogenitism mean?
Porphyrogenitism means the principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was born prior to it.
What part of speech is porphyrogenitism?
Porphyrogenitism is a noun.

Words near porphyrogenitism in the dictionary

  1. porphyrogene
  2. porphyrogenite
  3. porphyrogenites
  4. porphyrogeniti
  5. porphyrogenitic
  6. porphyrogenitism
  7. porphyrogenitoi
  8. porphyrogenitos
  9. porphyrogeniture
  10. porphyrogenitus
  11. porphyrogennetos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: porphyrogenitism (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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