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vizier

vizier

7 9.9
A senior official who helps a ruler make decisions
  • noun
  • /vɪˈzɪr/
translation icon : visir
  • The vizier stood beside the Sultan, advising him on matters of statecraft.
  • the grand vizier

I renounce my station as holy tutor, Tutor as vizier to the court of the Anasurimber Kelhus.

Examples

  • Upon hearing this, Scheherazade, daughter of Giafar, the Sultan's grand vizier, decides that she will be the one to marry the Sultan.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • This is my royal vizier, Jafar.

  • I am I, the Grand Vizier.

  • Make way, make way for the Grand Vizier.

  • Always nice to see my Grand Vizier promptly answering my call.

  • I think it was under his instructions, as vizier of Egypt, that that canal was cut.

  • The Grand Vizier Mustafa Pasha led the attack.

  • His lordship, the exalted Grand Vizier of Baghdad.

  • Abu Ubaydallah was a competent and upright vizier, and nothing could be found to impugn his character.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Political theory was not entirely divorced from actuality: the grand vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha was indeed of central importance to the running of the state.

    Academic text (2013)

How High-Ranking

head of state
  • Formal
49 3.5
prime minister
216 2.3
vizier
7 9.9
minister
  • UK
862 3.0
advisor
  • US
271 2.8

Surface Forms

vizier singular
viziers plural

Etymology

Vizier comes from Arabic wazir, which means 'helper' or 'one who carries a burden'. In old courts a vizier was the ruler's chief helper and adviser, so today the word means a high minister or adviser to a king or sultan.