Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The wife of a maharajah.
  • noun A princess in India ranking above a rani, especially the sovereign ruler of one of the former native states.
  • noun Used as a title for such a woman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A great rani; a princess in India or the wife of a maharaja.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Wife of a maharajah, approximately, a queen-consort.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a great rani; a princess in India or the wife of a maharaja

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Hindi mahārānī, from Sanskrit mahārājñī : mahā-, great; see meg- in Indo-European roots + rājñī, queen; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hindustani महा रानी / مہا رانی (mahā rānī), from Sanskrit.

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Examples

  • Chelsea smoothed her French twist hairstyle with her hands and burst from the stall, emitting attitude like a pissed-off maharani.

    Sin in Soul's Kitchen Andrew Oye 2009

  • She sounds anxious; instinctively, she reaches down beside the bed to touch the tapered fingers of a hand, a bronze, cast from the slender arm of a young maharani, a friend from the Thirties.

    Chaplin’s Girl Miranda Seymour 2009

  • Titled jet-setters, a maharajah and maharani, a baroness somebody in a beaded mask.

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • Titled jet-setters, a maharajah and maharani, a baroness somebody in a beaded mask.

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • Dal dish looks befitting for a maharani..is that why it is called so..

    Daal Maharani Meera 2008

  • Titled jet-setters, a maharajah and maharani, a baroness somebody in a beaded mask.

    Underworld Don Delillo 2008

  • Murray Kempton, of the New York Post, attended the party and wrote, 'All these people, the Sinatras, Nat Coles, Gene Kellys - the most inescapably valuable collection of flesh this side of the register of maharani -- sons of immigrant or second-class citizens of not so long ago.

    Sinatra The Man Behind the Myth Taraborrelli, J. R. 1997

  • I know the Khalsa's been spoiling for this - but if they know their own maharani has been conspiring with the enemy, and suspect their own commanders ... well, even the rank and file must have a shrewd idea their rulers want to see 'em beat.

    Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990

  • In the hit 1984 ITV series Jewel in the Crown, set in the dying days of the British Raj, a minor maharani screams on tasting a single malt gifted to her by Charles Dance - she thinks he's trying to poison her.

    The Guardian World News Rory Carroll 2011

  • The maharani had exquisite taste and I did get to see a beautiful crystal encrusted sandal that was made especially for her.

    Analysis 2010

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