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

n a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all

Type of:: advantage, vantage
the quality of having a superior or more favorable position

n a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

Synonyms:: exclusive right, perquisite, prerogative

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; 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

n (law) the right to refuse to divulge information obtained in a confidential relationship

Types:: show 6 types...; hide 6 types...; 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

v bestow a privilege upon

Synonyms:: favor, favour

Type of:: allow, countenance, let, permit
consent to, give permission

n a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all

n a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

n (law) the right to refuse to divulge information obtained in a confidential relationship

v bestow a privilege upon

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privilege

n a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all

n a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

n (law) the right to refuse to divulge information obtained in a confidential relationship

v bestow a privilege upon

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