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plenipotentiary

noun

Definition of plenipotentiarynext
as in ambassador
technical a person (such as a diplomat) who has complete power to do business for a government

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of plenipotentiary Walpole’s most frequent correspondent was Horace Mann, the British plenipotentiary in Florence, Italy. — Catherine Ostler, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2022 Morris was eventually the United States’ plenipotentiary to France and spent years afterward touring Europe and having affairs there. — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 4 June 2019 These succeeded to the extent that a meeting was brought about in 1880 between plenipotentiaries of the three belligerents and the American Ministers accredited to those countries on board an American naval vessel in the harbor of Arica. — Edwin M. Borchard, Foreign Affairs, 7 Oct. 2011
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plenipotentiary
  1. ambassador
  2. diplomat
  3. diplomatist
  4. emissary
  5. legate
  6. envoy
  7. foreign minister
  8. attorney
Noun
  • Iran’s ambassador to Russia also said in February 2025 that Tehran and Moscow no longer needed SWIFT for bilateral banking relations and were using their own confidential bank-messaging systems.
    — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Speaking of which, our final fancy-breakfast-table showdown of the season, in which Byron and Secretary Mullins manage to win the ever-begrudging Russian ambassador Maxim Petrov over to their plan.
    — Andy Andersen, Vulture, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of ambassador
Noun
  • Cuban diplomats present at the assembly then walked out of the room.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Monserrati writes that Italians, and Europeans in general, got many of their ideas about samurai from a 1900 book by Japanese diplomat Nitobe Inazō, a strong supporter of Japan’s colonization of Korea.
    — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of diplomat
Noun
  • The trouble, rather, is that even our top foreign-policy experts and our most sophisticated diplomatists are creatures of our own cultural heritage and intellectual environment.
    — Nicholas Eberstadt, National Review, 11 Sep. 2017
Definition of diplomatist
Noun
  • Beck was playing a shabby, malnourished musician living in a shack who acts as an emissary of a weird celebrity cult.
    — Josephine Reisman, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2026
  • See pictures from the funeral below, along with a list of the foreign emissaries who attended.
    — Stefania Conrieri, Vanity Fair, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of emissary
Noun
  • However, papal legates—diplomatic representatives—continue their external functions.
    — Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Apr. 2025
  • In the 1520s Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal legate of England, drove forward a similar program of moral and financial reform, winding up a further 29 monasteries.
    — Crawford Gribben, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2022
Definition of legate
Noun
  • Those efforts have included dispatching a senior envoy to discuss ending Iranian airline Mahan Air’s flights to Oman, according to a Treasury Department spokesperson.
    — Lauren Morganbesser, semafor.com, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Such a meeting would come after US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met separately with Zelensky in Kyiv and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month.
    — Max Saltman, CNN Money, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of envoy
Noun
  • According to the statement, Arnoldo André Tinoco, the Costa Rican foreign minister at the time, assured Havana at the time that the steps did not mean a rupture in relations.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Many of the images show Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov surrounded by prominent figures such as actor Vladimir Mashkov, singer Tatyana Kurtukova and Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of the propaganda publication RT.
    — Barry Svrluga, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of foreign minister
Noun
  • An immigration attorney representing the man's family identified him as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Some medical professionals have a reputation among attorneys as more defense-friendly, and prosecutors should know better than to pick them even before trial, Stimson told the Washington Examiner.
    — Hudson Crozier, The Washington Examiner, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of attorney

Browse Nearby Words

plenipotentiaries
plenipotentiary
plenitude
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“Plenipotentiary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plenipotentiary. Accessed 27 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on plenipotentiary

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about plenipotentiary

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