Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a small governing faction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, having a few centripetally developed xylem plates: said of some radial vascular cylinders.
  • noun A member of an oligarchy; one of a few holding political power.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A member of an oligarchy; one of the rulers in an oligarchical government.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A member of an oligarchy, someone who is part of a small group that runs a country.
  • noun A very rich person (especially in Russia).
  • noun A protoplanet formed during oligarchic accretion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of the rulers in an oligarchy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek oligarkhēs : oligos, few + -arkhēs, -arch.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὀλίγοι (oligoi, "few") + ἀρχή (arkhē, "rule").

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