roi fainéant
UK/ˌɹwɑː ˈfeɪnɪənt/
roi fainéant noun: any of the later French kings of the Merovingian dynasty, considered to have played a merely ceremonial role.
Noun
roi fainéant (plural rois fainéants)
- Any of the later French kings of the Merovingian dynasty, considered to have played a merely ceremonial role.
- Whether it be some Visigothic chieftain raised on a shield above the shoulders of his shouting warriors, some Roi Fainéant of the Merovingian race, a listless, pallid, long-haired kingling, dragged languidly through the streets in a painted wagon by sleek oxen, […] it seems clear to me that we must...1860, George Augustus Sala, Lady Chesterfield's Letters to her Daughter
- A leader with only nominal power.
- He is a King Do-Nothing, a Roi Fainéant, who shirks and evades all the responsibilities of his position […]1898, Henry Harland, Comedies and Errors
- Although Jacques Chirac more recently gave the role a distinctly sleepy, roi fainéant flavor, it remains a throne more than a mere office.2012 May 7, Adam Gopnik, “Vive La France”, in The New Yorker
Forms of roi fainéant
| plural | rois fainéants |
|---|
Origin of roi fainéant
From French roi fainéant (“lazy king”).
Questions about roi fainéant
- What does roi fainéant mean?
- Roi fainéant means any of the later French kings of the Merovingian dynasty, considered to have played a merely ceremonial role.
- What part of speech is roi fainéant?
- Roi fainéant is a noun.
- How do you pronounce roi fainéant?
- Roi fainéant is pronounced /ˌɹwɑː ˈfeɪnɪənt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of roi fainéant?
- The plural of roi fainéant is rois fainéants.
Words near roi fainéant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: roi fainéant (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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Cite this entry: “roi fainéant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/roi_fain%C3%A9ant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.