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
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a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all
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a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)
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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)
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privilege of the floor
the right to be admitted onto the floor of a legislative assembly while it is in session
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public easement
any easement enjoyed by the public in general (as the public's right to use public streets)
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right of way
the privilege of someone to pass over land belonging to someone else
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type of:
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right
an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
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(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
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informer's privilege
the right of the government to refuse to reveal the identity of an informer
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journalist's privilege
the right of a journalist to refuse to divulge sources of confidential information
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husband-wife privilege, marital communications privilege
neither spouse can divulge confidential communications from the other while they were married
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physician-patient privilege
the right of a physician to refuse to divulge confidential information from a patient without the consent of the patient
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priest-penitent privilege
the right of a clergyman to refuse to divulge confidential information received from a person during confession or similar exchanges
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type of:
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right
an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
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bestow a privilege upon
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