Word.ws English Dictionary

prince

/pɹɪns/

prince noun: a (male) ruler, a sovereign; a king, monarch.

Noun (1)

prince (plural princes)

  1. (archaic, historical) A (male) ruler, a sovereign; a king, monarch.
    • Truely, to see our Princes all alone, sitting at their meat, beleagred round with so many talkers, whisperers, and gazing beholders, unknowne what they are or whence they come, I have often rather pittied than envied them.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 42, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    • By his last years Erasmus realized that princes like Henry VIII and François I had deceived him in their elaborate negotiations for universal peace, but his belief in the potential of princely power for good remained undimmed.2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 600
  2. (obsolete) A female monarch.
    • Queen Elizabeth, a prince admirable above her sex.1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC
  3. Someone who is preeminent in their field; a great person.
    • He is a prince among men.
    • In some respects the intellectual is indeed closer to the philosopher than to any specialist, and the philosopher is in more than one sense a sort of prince among the intellectuals.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 423
  4. The (male) ruler or head of a principality.
    • He is the prince who never grew up – a one-time playboy and son of the Hollywood star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco.2011 June 26, Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian
  5. A male member of a royal family other than the ruler; especially (in the United Kingdom) the son or grandson of the monarch.
  6. A non-royal high title of nobility, especially in France and the Holy Roman Empire.
    • Prince Louis de Broglie won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics.
    • Conspiracy theories are always enticing: one I was involved with in the 50s was about Mayerling, the 19th-century Austrian scandal involving a prince’s lover who died in dodgy circumstances in a hunting lodge.2011 October 16, Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian
  7. A type of court card used in tarot cards, the equivalent of the jack.
  8. The mushroom Agaricus augustus.
  9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Rohana.

Verb

prince (third-person singular simple present princes, present participle princing, simple past and past participle princed)

  1. (intransitive, often, rare) To behave or act like a prince.
    • The Roofes of Palaces, and Nature prompts them / In ſimple and lowe things, to Prince it, much / Beyond the tricke of others.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  2. (rare, transitive) To transform (someone) into a prince.
    • All I could remember is the chorus, and something about pumpkins turning into princesses (???!) and frogs turning into princes. I figured she meant the frog was John before she princed him.2005 March 30, abe slaney, “Question re John Lennon's Death”, in rec.music.beatles (Usenet)

Noun (2) capitalized: Prince

Prince (plural Princes)

  1. The title of a prince.
    • Having been at the center of an international tragedy, the general public view is that the next generation—Princes William and Harry, and also Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice—have suffered enough and deserve every moment of happiness coming their way, and people are more than willing to help them...2015, Fraser McAlpine, Stuff Brits Like: A Guide to What’s Great About Great Britain, Berkley, →ISBN
    • Germany last year said it had foiled an attempt by another far-right group – the Reichsbuerger movement - to plot accused of plotting an attack on Germany’s parliament building, allegedly to overthrow its constitutional order and install the group’s central figure – aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince...2023 May 24, Nadine Schmidt and Sophie Tanno, “Germany intensifies scrutiny of far-right AfD, labeling its youth wing ‘extremist’”, in CNN

Proper noun capitalized: Prince

Prince (countable and uncountable, plural Princes)

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname for someone who acted like a prince, or played the part in a pageant, or served in the household of a prince.
  2. A male given name from English in occasional use.
    • Prince Fielder hit another home run today.
    • Young Mr Turveydrop's name is Prince; I wish it wasn't, because it sounds like a dog, but he didn't christen himself. Old Mr Turveydrop had him christened Prince, in remembrance of the Prince Regent.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter XIV, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
  3. A township in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada.
  4. A hamlet in the Rural Municipality of Meota No. 468, Saskatchewan, Canada.
  5. A census-designated place in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States.

prince meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

prince in Hindi

son or male-line grandson of a reigning monarch
युवराज yuvrāj, राजकुमार rājkumār, शहज़ादा śahzādā, कुँवर kũvar
male ruler or head of a principality
युवराज yuvrāj, कुँवर kũvar, शहज़ादा śahzādā, राजकुमार rājkumār

prince in Tamil

இளவரசன், இளங்கோ, கோமகன், அரசகுமாரன், ராஜகுமாரன்

prince in Marathi

a prince
राजकुमार rājkumār, राजपुत्र rājputra

prince in Urdu

son or male-line grandson of a reigning monarch
شَہْزادَہ śahzāda, راج کُمار rāj kumār, راجْکُمار rājkumār
male ruler or head of a principality
شَہْزادَہ śahzāda, راج کُمار rāj kumār, راجْکُمار rājkumār, اَمِیر amīr
More languagesFewer languages
prince in Bengali
রাজকুমার rajkumar, রাজপুত্র rajputro, যুবরাজ juboraj, শাহজাদা śahjada
prince in Telugu
యువరాజు yuvarāju
prince in Malayalam
രാജകുമാരന് rājakumāraṉ
prince in Kannada
ಅರಸುಮಗ, ರಾಜಕುಮಾರ, ದೊರೆಮಗ, ಎಳ ಅರಸ
prince in Punjabi
شہزادہ śahzādah, ਸ਼ਹਿਜ਼ਾਦਾ śahizādā, ਰਾਜਪੂਤ rājpūt, راجپوت rājpūt
prince in Gujarati
રાજકુમાર, રાજકુંવર, રાજકુમારે
prince in Odia
ରାଜପୁତ୍ର rājaputra, ଦେଉ deu, ରାଜପୁତ rājaputa
prince in Sanskrit
कुमार kumāra
prince in Assamese
কোঁৱৰ kü̃or
prince in Nepali
राजकुमार
prince in Pashto
شهزاده šahzādá, شاهزاده šāhzādá, شازاده šāzãdá, اميرزاده amirzādá
prince in Tagalog
lakan, prinsipe
prince in Arabic
أَمِير ʔamīr
prince in Malay
putera, pangeran
prince in Indonesian
pangeran, putera
prince in Thai
เจ้าชาย jâao-chaai, เจ้า jâao
prince in Vietnamese
vương tử, hoàng tử
prince in Myanmar
မင်းသား mang:sa:

Examples of prince in a sentence

  • The princess is next in line to the throne after the prince.
  • A good prince concerns himself in the happiness of his subjects.
  • If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person.

All 40 example sentences with prince

Forms of prince

Noun
pluralprinces
pluralPrinces
Verb
third-person singular presentprinces
present participleprincing
past participleprinced
pastprinced
Proper noun
pluralPrinces

Plural of prince: princes

Origin of prince

From Middle English prince, from Anglo-Norman prince, from Latin prī̆nceps (“first head”), from prīmus (“first”) + capiō (“seize, take”). Cognate with Old English fruma (“prince, ruler”). Doublet of princeps and principe. Displaced English atheling (“prince”), from Middle English, from Old English æþeling (“prince”). Displaced also Middle English kinebarn (from cynebearn, literally “kinbairn”, i.e. “royal child”), alder < ealdor (“elder, leader, chief, prince, king”), and drighten < dryhten (“lord”).

Words formed from prince

Phrases with prince

26 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with prince

Questions about prince

What does prince mean?
Prince means a (male) ruler, a sovereign; a king, monarch.
What is prince in Hindi?
Prince in Hindi is युवराज (yuvrāj), राजकुमार (rājkumār), शहज़ादा (śahzādā). See Prince meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is prince?
Prince can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce prince?
Prince is pronounced /pɹɪns/.
What is the plural of prince?
The plural of prince is princes.

Words near prince in the dictionary

  1. primæval
  2. primævality
  3. prin
  4. prinaberel
  5. princ.
  6. prince
  7. Prince Albert
  8. Prince Albert cage
  9. Prince Albert cages
  10. Prince Albert coat
  11. Prince Albert coats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prince (page history and authors); Prince (page history and authors); prince (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); राजकुमार (Marathi) (page history and authors); prince (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); راجپوت (Punjabi) (page history and authors); prince (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଦେଉ (Odia) (page history and authors); prince (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-prince.ogg.

Cite this entry: “prince.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prince. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.