lord

noun \ ˈlȯrd \

Definition of lord

1 :one having power and authority over others:

a :a ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due

b :one of whom a fee or estate is held in feudal tenure

c :an owner of land or other real (see ¹real 1) property

d obsolete :the male head of a household

e :husband

f :one that has achieved mastery or that exercises leadership or great power in some area

a drug lord

2 capitalized

a :god 1

b :jesus

3 :a man of rank or high position: such as

a :a feudal tenant whose right or title comes directly from the king

b :a British nobleman: such as

(1) :baron 2a

(2) :a hereditary peer of the rank of marquess, earl, or viscount

(3) :the son of a duke or a marquess or the eldest son of an earl

(4) :a bishop of the Church of England

c Lords plural :house of lords

4 —used as a British title: such as

a —used as part of an official title

Lord Advocate

Lord Mayor

b —used informally in place of the full title for a marquess, earl, or viscount

c —used for a baron

d —used by courtesy before the name and surname of a younger son of a duke or a marquess

5 :a person chosen to preside over a festival

See lord defined for English-language learners

See lord defined for kids

Examples of lord in a Sentence

He became a lord upon the death of his father.
as lords of the local real estate scene, they own nearly all of the city's prime pieces of property

Recent Examples of lord from the Web

This one seems easy: Sansa, who already has the backing of some of the lords.

— james hibberd, PEOPLE.com, "How That Jon Snow Twist on Game of Thrones Changes Everything," 28 Aug. 2017
Faithful adherents make the pilgrimage every day when the weather's good to interact with their lord, knowing how their hearts will ache with longing and desire the rest of the year.

— todd masson, NOLA.com, "Hot tarpon fishing like a religious experience for Louisiana anglers," 17 Aug. 2017
Poor and desperate to reach the U.S., Raxcaco was detained in a hotel in the Mexican region of Senora for a day until his aunt in Semmes, Alabama, gathered the money for the drug lord.

— christopher harress, AL.com, "Trapped by a search for freedom, the life of an Alabama refugee," 15 Aug. 2017
Power, season two Omari Hardwick stars as a New York City nightclub owner nicknamed Ghost who leads a secret double life as a drug lord in this highly rated Starz crime drama.

— david petkiewicz, cleveland.com, "Plain Dealer food writers talk their favorite Cleveland A-List restaurants (video)," 23 June 2017
Now that the Mexican drug lord escaped from prison, everyone is saying that most of the cocaine etc.

— olivia nuzzi, Daily Intelligencer, "Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship With Anonymous Sourcing," 28 May 2017
With the belated firing of Bill O’Reilly, the monarchical lords of 21st Century Fox have turned 1990s with their initial programming decisions.

— The Hive, "Has Rupert Murdoch Lost His Nerve?," 21 Apr. 2017
And lord knows if anybody’s life was put at risk by this.

— WSJ, "Repeal and Replace," 13 Mar. 2017
But for anyone who doesn't have 60-plus hours to binge an emotionally draining show about a high school teacher who becomes a drug lord, one filmmaker has edited the entire series into a two-hour movie.

— matt miller, Esquire, "This Two-Hour Breaking Bad Movie Is the Most Efficient Way to Watch the Greatest Series Ever," 13 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lord.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of lord

Middle English loverd, lord, from Old English hlāford, from hlāf loaf + weard keeper — more at loaf, ward

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

See Words from the same year

lord Synonyms

Synonyms

baron, captain, czar (also tsar or tzar), king, lion, magnate, mogul, monarch, Napoleon, prince, tycoon

Related Words

big boy, big cheese, bigfoot, biggie, big gun, big shot, big wheel, bigwig, fat cat, figure, heavy, heavyweight, honcho, kahuna, main man, mover and shaker, nabob, nawab, notable, personage, pooh-bah (also poo-bah), supremo [chiefly British], VIP; celebrity, personality, star, superstar; deity, demigod, god

Near Antonyms

half-pint, lightweight, small-timer; inferior, subordinate, underling; nobody, nothing, zero

lord

verb

Definition of lord

intransitive verb

:to act like a lord; especially :to put on airs —usually used with it

lords it over his friends

See lord defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of lord from the Web

The prison guards were like the popular kids, lording their power over everybody else.

— author: sabrina tavernise, Alaska Dispatch News, "At an Arkansas mosque, a vandal spreads hate and finds mercy," 26 Aug. 2017
Like a proud predator lording over its conquest, an industrial-sized lifter loomed above the broken concrete foundation before dawn Tuesday where a bank’s drive-thru ATM was once firmly embedded.

— doug phillips, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Crooks use big lifter to snatch ATM from bank's drive-thru," 22 Aug. 2017
Marvel pulled off a very similar villain switcheroo in Luke Cage, eliminating Mahershala Ali's Cottonmouth at the halfway point of the first season, paving the way for Erik LaRay Harvey's Diamondback to lord over Luke for the rest of the season.

— josh wigler, The Hollywood Reporter, "'The Defenders': Here's How the Marvel Series Plays Out," 19 Aug. 2017
The appointment caps months of speculation about who would succeed Stuart Emmrich in the high-profile gig, a post that involves lording over one of the Times’s more lucrative sections in terms of advertising.

— joe pompeo, vanityfair.com, "Choire Sicha wins Times Styles Section Bake-Off," 28 July 2017
For more than two decades the Western Conference has lorded over the East in terms of talent disparity.

— jon krawczynski, The Seattle Times, "Go West, young man: NBA stars cluster in Western Conference," 15 July 2017
Saban and the Tide have lorded over the conference the last three seasons -- claiming its championship and raising the bar in the process.

— rainer sabin, AL.com, "Why Alabama's dominance is elephant in SEC media room," 12 July 2017
There are dozens of historical examples of men lording it over women by cracking down on beauty treatments, starting with the Spartans, who banned women’s use of all cosmetics.

— joan kron, Town & Country, "The President's Facelift Tweet Wasn't Just Mean—It Was Also Factually Inaccurate," 30 June 2017
There is a danger, though, in franchises and players chasing the Warriors, perhaps even more harmful to the league’s competitive concerns than the Warriors lording over the league alone.

— adam kilgore, The Denver Post, "Forget breaking up the Warriors, NBA commissioner wants more teams like them," 13 June 2017

Origin and Etymology of lord

see ¹lord

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

See Words from the same year

LORD Defined for Kids

lord

noun \ ˈlȯrd \

Definition of lord for Students

1 :a person having power and authority over others

2 capitalized :god 1

3 capitalized :jesus christ

4 :a British nobleman or bishop —used as a title

Lord Cornwallis

History for lord

Lord was first formed as a compound word, though its nature has been made unclear by centuries of sound change. The Old English ancestor of lord was hlāford, “head of the household”; this compound is made up of hlāf, “loaf, bread,” and weard, “keeper, guard.” Old English speakers seem to have thought of the most important male in the house as the “keeper of the bread.”