Word.ws English Dictionary

Sublime Porte

Sublime Porte proper noun: the monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople).

Proper noun

Sublime Porte

  1. (literally) The monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople)
  2. (figuratively) The Ottoman sultanic court, hence the imperial government, notably the vizierial divan and the entire empire, or a personage with a similar standing.
    • He liked the pleasures of the table, and he liked attendance; he was a sort of Sublime Porte to his valets.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170

Sublime Porte meaning in Arabic and Persian

Sublime Porte in Arabic

Ottoman imperial government
البَاب العَالِي al-bāb al-ʕālī

Sublime Porte in Persian

Ottoman imperial government
باب عالی, عالی قاپو

Synonyms of Sublime Porte

  • Ottoman sultanic court etc

Forms of Sublime Porte

alternative formHigh Porte
alternative formOttoman Porte
alternative formPorte

Origin of Sublime Porte

From French Sublime Porte (“high gate/portal”).

Questions about Sublime Porte

What does Sublime Porte mean?
Sublime Porte means the monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople).
What is Sublime Porte in Arabic?
Sublime Porte in Arabic is البَاب العَالِي (al-bāb al-ʕālī). See Sublime Porte meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is Sublime Porte?
Sublime Porte is a proper noun.

Words near Sublime Porte in the dictionary

  1. sublimatories
  2. sublimators
  3. sublimatory
  4. sublimbate
  5. sublime
  6. Sublime Porte
  7. Sublime State of Afghanistan
  8. sublimed
  9. sublimely
  10. sublimeness
  11. sublimer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Sublime Porte (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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