potentate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Stripping away the amour propre of a nuclear-armed potentate is a dangerous business.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025

With the cabinet not having met since 2018, all power flows through him, and like a potentate he receives a string of local officials and foreign dignitaries at his retreat.

From BBC • Jun. 19, 2025

Feinstein ruled over San Francisco like a potentate, hands on and fingernails dug in.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 29, 2023

At last year’s Barcelona Olympics, he was treated more as a potentate or rock star than a basketball player.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 23, 2022

Actually they were in custody of King Mob--a more powerful potentate than they--who had locked them up in a gilded jail, yclept the Palace of the Tuileries.

From The Maid of Honour, Volume 2 (of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Wingfield, Lewis