nonroyal

adjective

non·​roy·​al ˌnän-ˈrȯi(-ə)l How to pronounce nonroyal (audio)
: not of or relating to kingly ancestry : not royal
nonroyal lineage
nonroyal guests

Examples of nonroyal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Painted with a similarly light touch is the only nonroyal subject among Velázquez’s four portraits, an unidentified woman who blissfully, sensually traces her finger along a clay tablet. Benjamin Lima, Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2022 Over time, Egyptian funerary customs changed, with versions of the Coffin Texts—a later adaptation of the Pyramid Texts—appearing on the sarcophagi of nonroyal people, including nobles, notes ARCE. Isis Davis-Marks, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 July 2021 In the United Kingdom, by one estimate, only some 3 percent of public statues are of nonroyal women. New York Times, 18 Feb. 2021 And, unlike the goal of simply becoming fabulously wealthy — which one could also accomplish by winning the lottery or marrying a nonroyal oil magnate — princesshood came with a sense of noblesse oblige. Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2020 Some of the criticism of Markle has been racially tinged, which is an obvious difference, but the two women both came from the nonroyal world and have had to adapt to the ways and protocols of the family. Abby Gardner, Glamour, 30 Oct. 2019 Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis, and Osama bin Laden was a scion of one of the country’s wealthiest nonroyal families. Daniel Benjamin, The New York Review of Books, 30 May 2019 The Saudi court rapidly began an unprecedented effort to centralize power, eliminating numerous government bodies that had been controlled by leading princes and replacing them with committees staffed with nonroyal technocrats loyal to MBS. Daniel Benjamin, The New York Review of Books, 30 May 2019 Days before her death, the New London Theatre was renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre in her honor, marking the first time a West End theater was named for a nonroyal woman. Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 3 July 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nonroyal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1853, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of nonroyal was in 1853

Dictionary Entries Near nonroyal

Cite this Entry

“Nonroyal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonroyal. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!