Word.ws English Dictionary

prytane

/pɹaɪˈteɪn/

prytane noun: the priest or chief magistrate who presided over a prytaneum.

Noun

prytane (plural prytanes)

  1. The priest or chief magistrate who presided over a prytaneum.
    • This priest of the public hearth bore the name of king. Sometimes they gave him other titles. As he was especially the priest of the prytaneum, the Greeks preferred to call him the prytane; sometimes they also called him the archon.1915, Albert Kocourek, John Henry Wigmore, Primitive and Ancient Legal Institutions
    • The priest of the city hearth was called "king", "prytane", or "archon". The term "prytane" was derived from the fact that he was the priest of the prytaneum, or local hearth.1962, William Herbert Desmonde, Magic, Myth, and Money
  2. A board of magistrates presiding over a prytaneum.

Forms of prytane

pluralprytanes

Origin of prytane

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πρύτανις (prútanis).

Questions about prytane

What does prytane mean?
Prytane means the priest or chief magistrate who presided over a prytaneum.
What part of speech is prytane?
Prytane is a noun.
How do you pronounce prytane?
Prytane is pronounced /pɹaɪˈteɪn/.
What is the plural of prytane?
The plural of prytane is prytanes.

Words near prytane in the dictionary

  1. Prystaj
  2. Prystay
  3. Prysyvashne
  4. Prysyvashshia
  5. Prysyvaske
  6. prytane
  7. prytanea
  8. prytaneis
  9. prytanes
  10. prytaneum
  11. prytanies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prytane (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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