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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

earl.

A British or Irish nobleman next in rank above a viscount and below a marquess; equivalent to a European count. A female using the style is termed a countess.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɜːl/Received-Pronunciation/ɝl/General-American/ɛrl/Early, Modern/ɛːrl/Early, Modern, rare
  1. A British or Irish nobleman next in rank above a viscount and below a marquess; equivalent to a European count. A female using the style is termed a countess.

  2. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called counts and viscounts.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English erl, erle, from Old English eorl, from Proto-West Germanic *erl, from Proto-Germanic *erlaz (compare Old Saxon erl, Old Norse jarl), from Proto-Germanic *erōną, *arōną (compare Old Norse jara (“fight, battle”)). Doublet of eorl and jarl. Unrelated to ealdorman (“alderman”).

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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.