privilege

A privilege is a special advantage not enjoyed by everyone. If you're very snooty, you probably don't allow just anyone the privilege of being your friend.

Privilege comes from Latin privilegium, meaning a law for just one person, and means a benefit enjoyed by an individual or group beyond what's available to others. Someone wealthy come from privilege. Someone with a library card has borrowing privileges. Privilege can also be used as a verb. If you are on a committee giving away scholarships, you'll have to decide whether to privilege students from poor backgrounds or the students with high test scores.

Definitions of privilege
  1. noun
    a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all
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    type of:
    advantage, vantage
    the quality of having a superior or more favorable position
  2. noun
    a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)
    synonyms: exclusive right, perquisite, prerogative
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    types:
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    easement
    (law) the privilege of using something that is not your own (as using another's land as a right of way to your own land)
    privilege of the floor
    the right to be admitted onto the floor of a legislative assembly while it is in session
    public easement
    any easement enjoyed by the public in general (as the public's right to use public streets)
    right of way
    the privilege of someone to pass over land belonging to someone else
    type of:
    right
    an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
  3. noun
    (law) the right to refuse to divulge information obtained in a confidential relationship
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    types:
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    attorney-client privilege
    the right of a lawyer to refuse to divulge confidential information from his client
    informer's privilege
    the right of the government to refuse to reveal the identity of an informer
    journalist's privilege
    the right of a journalist to refuse to divulge sources of confidential information
    husband-wife privilege, marital communications privilege
    neither spouse can divulge confidential communications from the other while they were married
    physician-patient privilege
    the right of a physician to refuse to divulge confidential information from a patient without the consent of the patient
    priest-penitent privilege
    the right of a clergyman to refuse to divulge confidential information received from a person during confession or similar exchanges
    type of:
    right
    an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
  4. verb
    bestow a privilege upon
    synonyms: favor, favour
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    type of:
    allow, countenance, let, permit
    consent to, give permission
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