royal

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

• adjective Of or relating to a monarch.
• adjective Of the rank of a monarch.
• adjective Of, relating to, or in the service of a kingdom.
• adjective Issued or performed by a monarch.
• adjective Founded, chartered, or authorized by a monarch.
• adjective Befitting royalty; stately.
• adjective Superior, as in size or quality.
• adjective Used as an intensive.
• noun Informal A member of a monarch's family.
• noun Nautical A sail set on the royalmast.
• noun A paper size, 20 by 25 inches for printing, 19 by 24 inches for writing.
• idiom (the royal road) A way or method that presents no difficulties.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Of or pertaining to a king; derived from or cognate to a king; belonging to or connected with the crown of a kingdom; regal; as, the royal family; a royal prince; royal domains; a royal palace.
• Pertaining or relating to the sovereign power of a king; acting under, derived from, or dependent upon regal authority, aid, or patronage: as, a royal parliament or government; the royal army or navy; royal purveyors.
• Of kingly character or quality; proper for or suitable to kingship; ideally like or characteristic of a king or royalty; royally eminent, excellent, or the like: used either literally or figuratively: as, royal state or magnificence; he proved a royal friend; a right royal welcome.
• Large or superior of its kind; of more than ordinary size, excellence, or the like: used as a specific qualification, as in royal quarto or royal octavo in printing, a royal antler or stag, etc., or as an assertion of superiority for that to which it is applied, as in the names of some articles of trade.
• The bay-laurel, Laurus nobilis.
• A merchant who managed the mercantile affairs of or purveyed for a sovereign or state.
• [caps.] Another name for the constellation Robur Caroli.
• Synonyms Royal, Regal, Kingly. Regal is applicable primarily to what pertains to a king in virtue of his office, and hence to what is proper to or suggestive of a king, and as now frequently used is nearly synonymous with princely, magnificent: as, regal state or pomp; regal power. Royal notes what pertains to the king as an individual, or is associated with his person: as, his royal highness (applied to a prince of the blood); the royal family; the royal presence; the royal robes; a royal salute. It does not, like regal, necessarily imply magnificence. Thus, a royal residence may not be regal in its character, while on the other hand any magnificent mansion belonging to a subject may be described as regal, though it is not royal. The sway of a great Highland chief of old was regal, but not royal. Hence, in figurative use, royal is applied to qualities, actions, or things which are conceived of as superlatively great, noble, or admirable in themselves, or as worthy of a king: as, a royal disposition, royal virtues, a royal entertainment, etc.; regal, to those which make an impression of the highest grandeur, stateliness, ascendancy, or the like: as, a regal bearing, regal munificence, regal commands, etc. Kingly seems to be intermediate. It signifies literally like a king, hence proper to or befitting a king, and in its more general use resembling or suggestive of a king. Like royal, it has reference to personal qualities: as, a kingly bearing, presence, disposition, and the like; while, like regal, it is not restricted to the monarch or members of his house.
• Imperial, august, majestic, superb, splendid, magnificent, illustrious.
• noun . A royal person; a member of a royal family; a king or prince.
• noun . A gold coin formerly current in England: same as ryal.
• noun Nautical, a small square sail, usually the highest on a ship, carried on the royalmast only in a light breeze.
• noun One of the tines of a stag's antlers; an antler royal, or royal antler. See antler, 3.
• noun A stag which has the antler royal.
• noun In artillery, a small mortar.
• noun That part of the beard which grows below the under lip and above the point of the chin, especially when the beard around it is shaved.
• noun A writing-paper of the size 19 X 24 inches; also, a printing-paper of the size 20 X 25 inches.
• noun A name sometimes given to other regiments in whose title the word royal occurs: as, the King's Royal Rifle Corps; the Royal Scots Fusiliers, etc.

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

• noun Printing and writing papers of particular sizes. See under paper, n.
• noun (Naut.) A small sail immediately above the topgallant sail.
• noun (Zoöl.) One of the upper or distal branches of an antler, as the third and fourth tynes of the antlers of a stag.
• noun (Gun.) A small mortar.
• noun (Mil.) One of the soldiers of the first regiment of foot of the British army, formerly called the Royals, and supposed to be the oldest regular corps in Europe; -- now called the Royal Scots.
• noun An old English coin. See Rial.
• noun (Auction Bridge) A royal spade.
• adjective Kingly; pertaining to the crown or the sovereign; suitable for a king or queen; regal.
• adjective Noble; generous; magnificent; princely.
• adjective Under the patronage of royality; holding a charter granted by the sovereign.
• adjective See under Battle.
• adjective (Bot.) the classic laurel (Laurus nobilis.)
• adjective (Zoöl.) See Golden eagle, under Golden.
• adjective (Bot.) the handsome fern Osmunda regalis. See Osmund.
• adjective (Naut.) the mast next above the topgallant mast and usually the highest on a square-rigged vessel. The royal yard and royal sail are attached to the royal mast.
• adjective an old name for gold.
• adjective (Bot.) a magnificent West Indian palm tree (Oreodoxa regia), lately discovered also in Florida.
• adjective See Curassow.
• adjective an intense violet color, verging toward blue.