Word.ws English Dictionary

soveraigne

soveraigne is the archaic spelling of sovereign.

Meaning of sovereign

Adjective

sovereign (comparative more sovereign, superlative most sovereign)

  1. Exercising power of rule.
    • sovereign nation
    1. Having supreme, ultimate power; (often specifically, of a polity) having fully independent power in international relations.
      • Near-synonym: supreme
  2. Exceptional in quality.
    • Her voice was her sovereign talent.
  3. (archaic) Extremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).
    • The ſoueraigne weede betwixt two marbles plaine
      She pownded ſmall, and did in peeces bruze,
      And then atweene her lilly handes twaine,
      Into his wound the iuyce thereof did ſcruze […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  4. Princely; royal.
    • You pity not the state, nor the remembrance of his most sovereign name.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  5. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.
    • We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good.[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

See all 17 meanings of sovereign

Questions about soveraigne

What is soveraigne the archaic spelling of?
Soveraigne is the archaic spelling of sovereign.

Words near soveraigne in the dictionary

  1. SovCits
  2. sovenance
  3. sovenaunce
  4. sovenaunces
  5. soveraign
  6. soveraigne
  7. soveraigns
  8. soveraigntie
  9. sovereign
  10. sovereign bond
  11. sovereign bonds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: soveraigne (page history and authors); sovereign (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: “soveraigne.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soveraigne. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.