English

Noun

protectorate ‎(plural protectorates)

1. Government by a protector; -- applied especially to the government of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Oliver Cromwell.
2. The authority assumed by a superior power over an inferior or a dependent one, whereby the former protects the latter from invasion and shares in the management of its affairs but the protected state retains its nominal sovereignty.

   Egypt became a British protectorate in 1914.

3. An autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity.

Translations

References

• protectorate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913