REIGN

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does reign mean? 

• REIGN (noun)
  The noun REIGN has 3 senses:

1. a period during which something or somebody is dominant or powerful

2. the period during which a monarch is sovereign

3. royal authority; the dominion of a monarch

  Familiarity information: REIGN used as a noun is uncommon.

• REIGN (verb)
  The verb REIGN has 2 senses:

1. have sovereign power

2. be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance

  Familiarity information: REIGN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REIGN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A period during which something or somebody is dominant or powerful

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

he was helpless under the reign of his egotism

Hypernyms ("reign" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reign"):

reign of terror (any period of brutal suppression thought to resemble the Reign of Terror in France)

Derivation:

reign (be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The period during which a monarch is sovereign

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

during the reign of Henry VIII

Hypernyms ("reign" is a kind of...):

age; historic period (an era of history having some distinctive feature)

Derivation:

reign (have sovereign power)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Royal authority; the dominion of a monarch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

reign; sovereignty

Hypernyms ("reign" is a kind of...):

dominion; rule (dominance or power through legal authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reign"):

scepter; sceptre (the imperial authority symbolized by a scepter)

Derivation:

reign (have sovereign power)

• REIGN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they reign    ... he / she / it reigns   
Past simple: reigned   
Past participle: reigned   
-ing form: reigning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have sovereign power

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

Henry VIII reigned for a long time

Hypernyms (to "reign" is one way to...):

govern; rule (exercise authority over; as of nations)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

reign (royal authority; the dominion of a monarch)

reign (the period during which a monarch is sovereign)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

dominate; predominate; prevail; reign; rule

Context example:

Hispanics predominate in this neighborhood

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "reign"):

override (prevail over)

overarch (be central or dominant)

outbalance; outweigh; overbalance; preponderate (weigh more heavily)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

reign (a period during which something or somebody is dominant or powerful)

 Context examples 

It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law, and he met the introduction halfway.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

A king and queen once upon a time reigned in a country a great way off, where there were in those days fairies.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was the beginning of the end for White Fang—the ending of the old life and the reign of hate.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was as Challenger had said, and the reign of man was assured forever in Maple White Land.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the kitchen reigned confusion and despair.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Silence composes the nerves; and as an unbroken hush now reigned again through the whole house, I began to feel the return of slumber.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

How well I recollect, when I became quiet, what an unnatural stillness seemed to reign through the whole house!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The chapel was soon afterwards left to the silence and stillness which reigned in it, with few interruptions, throughout the year.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When we hove to, a hasty though orderly confusion reigned.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Given at our palace at Belfaborac, the twelfth day of the ninety-first moon of our reign.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)