| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| privilege |
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| SYLLABICATION: | priv·i·lege |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  pr v  -lj, prvlj |
| NOUN: | 1a. A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. See synonyms at right. b. Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as a prerogative of status or rank, and exercised to the exclusion or detriment of others. 2. The principle of granting and maintaining a special right or immunity: a society based on privilege. 3. Law The right to privileged communication in a confidential relationship, as between client and attorney, patient and physician, or communicant and priest. 4. An option to buy or sell a stock, including put, call, spread, and straddle. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: priv·i·leged, priv·i·leg·ing, priv·i·leg·es
1. To grant a privilege to. 2. To free or exempt. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pr vil gium, a law affecting one person : prvus, single, alone; see per1 in Appendix I + lx, lg-, law; see leg- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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