English

Proper noun

the Principality

1. Wales
   • 1795, Joshua THOMAS (of Leominster.), A History of the Baptist Association in Wales, from the year 1650, to the year 1790, etc, page 77

     The first information I have of a sermon at an association, in the Principality, is in the letter of 1703, which appoints one to be preached the following year.

   • 1967, Transactions - Institute of British Geographers

     During the last decade or so Wales has attracted about 10 per cent of British holiday-makers. According to a sample survey carried out in 1961, the Principality accommodated 4 million people in that year who spent a total of 28-million holiday nights.

   • 2015, Gareth Bennett, David Collins, The Little Book of Cardiff, The History Press (ISBN 9780750964807)

     Welshmen from throughout the Principality, as well as well-known international players, came to Cardiff to don the famous balck-and-blue jersey.

2. Alternative letter-case form of principality; any of the actual extant principalities.
   • 2002, Eur, Western Europe 2003, Psychology Press (ISBN 9781857431520), page 451

     The affair led to a crisis in relations between France and the Principality, with the French Government overruling Prince Rainier by refusing to extend the mandate of Monaco's Chief Prosecutor

English

Noun

principality ‎(plural principalities)

1. (obsolete) The state of being a prince or ruler; sovereignty, absolute authority. [14th-19th c.]
2. (now rare) The state of being principal; pre-eminence. [from 14th c.]
3. A region or sovereign nation headed by a prince or princess. [from 14th c.]
   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 14:

     At this time Russia consisted of a dozen or so principalities, which were frequently at war with one another.

4. (theology) A spiritual being, specifically in Christian angelology, the fifth level of angels, ranked above powers and below dominions. [from 16th c.]

Translations

See also

• choirs of angels
• dominion
• power