divine right
noun
Simple meaning
The doctrine that kings derive their right to rule directly from God and are not accountable to their subjects.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihvynrytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈvaɪnɹaɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The doctrine that kings derive their right to rule directly from God and are not accountable to their subjects; rebellion is the worst of political crimes
Christianitypolitical sciencephilosophy
The Christian doctrine that monarchs have a God-given right to rule, that they are answerable only to God, and that rebellion is sinful.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: The doctrine that kings derive their right to rule directly from God and are not accountable to their subjects; rebellion is the worst of political crimes
Used this way, divine right is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.