regnant

See also: régnant

English

Etymology

From French régnant and its source, the present participle of Latin regnāre.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛɡnənt/
• Rhymes: -ɛɡnənt

Adjective

regnant (not comparable)

1. Reigning, ruling; currently holding power. [from 15th c.]
   • 1910, A. M. Fairbairn, Studies in Religion and Theology, page 99:

     The people are now the State, their will is the regnant will, and that will has this characteristic — it loves principles, it hates compromises; and the principles it loves must be regulative, fit to be applied to the work and guidance of life.

2. Dominant; holding sway; having particular power or influence. [from 17th c.]
   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 7:

     The doors of his temples were kept open in time of war, the time in which the ideas of contradiction and conflict are most naturally regnant.

4. (postpositive) of a monarch, ruling in one's one right; often contrasted with consort and dowager

   Queen Elizabeth II reigns as queen regnant, unlike her mother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Derived terms

• queen regnant
• empress regnant

See also

• consort
• dowager
• queen consort
• queen dowager

Noun

regnant (plural regnants)

1. (obsolete) A sovereign or ruler.
   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter 6, in The Abbot. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC:

     Here are two sovereigns in the land, a regnant and a claimant - that is enough of one good thing - but if any one wants more, he may find a king in every peelhouse in the country; so if we lack government, it is not for lack of governors.

Derived terms

• empress regnant
• queen regnant

Anagrams

• Gantner

Catalan

Participle

regnant

1. present participle of regnar

Latin

Verb

rēgnant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of rēgnō