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archon

/ˈɑrkɑn/
IPA guide

Other forms: archons; archontes

An archon is a leader. It could refer to the President of the United States, a top personality of the fashion world, or a really important person in dog training circles.

This term, while often used in a general, poetic sense, was also a title in Ancient Greece. It was often used for a chief magistrate, or a person who enforces the law. Archon comes from a Greek word meaning "to be first." The arch- part of this root word is shared with monarch, another type of leader, and with the arch- in words like archbishop, a head bishop.

Definitions of archon
  1. noun
    a leader or ruler
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