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baron.

The male ruler of a barony.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbæɹən/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbaɹən/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard/ˈbaɾən/Scotland, Wales/ˈbæɹən/
  1. The male ruler of a barony.

  2. A male member of the lowest rank of English nobility (the equivalent rank in Scotland is lord).

  3. A person of great power in society, especially in business and politics.

    broadly
    railroad baron
    tech baron
  4. A prisoner who gains power and influence by lending or selling goods such as tobacco.

    UK · slang
  5. A baron of beef, a cut made up of a double sirloin.

  6. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Euthalia.

  7. A husband.

    obsolete
    baron and femme
Where this word comes from

From Middle English baroun, from Old French baron, from Latin barōnem, from Proto-West Germanic *barō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Old High German *baro (“human being, man, freeman”), Old English bora (“a man who bears responsibility, one who is in charge, a ruler”), and perhaps to Old English beorn (“man, warrior”). Used in early Germanic law in the sense of "man, human being". A Celtic origin has also been suggested; see the quote under sense 3 of Latin barō. However, the OED takes the hypothetical Proto-Celtic *bar- (“hero”) to be a figment.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.