barons
Lowest-ranking peers
Barons are members of the lowest rank of nobility, above commoners but below viscounts.
The title carries different weight in different countries—substantial in some European systems, merely honorific in others.
By extension, a baron is someone with great power in a particular domain: oil barons, drug barons, media barons.
The term often implies wealth accumulated through aggressive or unscrupulous means, as in robber barons.
Rule by hereditary elite
- peerageSystem of noble ranks
- titlesNames of creative works
- lineageDescent from progenitors
- dukeHighest-ranking nobleman
earl · viscount · marquess · countess · hereditary · ancestry · blueblood · patrician
Landed aristocratic residence
- vassalLand-holding sworn subordinate
- fiefdomFeudal territory under lord
- liegeFeudal superior or subject
- fealtyPledged devotion to authority
demesne · overlord · serfdom · knight · castellan · seneschal · bailiff · suzerain
Wealthy business leader
- tycoonDominant industrial leader
- industrialistMajor manufacturing business owner
- CarnegieGilded Age industrialist
- RockefellerIndustrial dynasty surname
Vanderbilt · monopolist · capitalist · titan · mogul · empire builder · Gilded Age · trust
aristocracy
Rule by hereditary elite
duke · earl · viscount · marquess · countess · hereditary · ancestry · blueblood · patrician · gentry
manor
Landed aristocratic residence
- vassalLand-holding sworn subordinate
- fiefdomFeudal territory under lord
- liegeFeudal superior or subject
fealty · demesne · overlord · serfdom · knight · castellan · seneschal · bailiff · suzerain · homage
magnate
Wealthy business leader
- tycoonDominant industrial leader
- industrialistMajor manufacturing business owner
- CarnegieGilded Age industrialist
Rockefeller · Vanderbilt · monopolist · capitalist · titan · mogul · empire builder · Gilded Age · trust · cartel
fortune
Wealth or destiny
assets · opulence · luxury · inheritance · endowment · prosperity · affluence · capital · treasure · dynasty
dominance
Superior influence over others
sway · leverage · authority · kingmaker · patronage · lobbying · manipulation · connections · pull · prestige
- Italian NobilityMedici, Borgia, Gonzaga, Savoy, dukes
- landownerslandlords, farmer, rancher, freeholders, homesteader
- Norman EraNormans, William the Conqueror, Norman conquest, Domesday Book, Battle of Hastings
- Czech Nobilitycount, counts, princes, dukes, margrave
- Medieval Eraknights, Middle Ages, castles, feudal lords, medieval period
- Medieval Europekings, queens, knights, castles, castle
baronscommoners
Ordinary citizens, untitled
peasants · paupers · the poor · subjects · the masses
baronsworkers
People doing jobs
laborers · employees · wage earners · the working class · proletariat
- oil baronsWealthy petroleum industrialists
- robber baronsExploitative nineteenth-century capitalists
- Red BaronGerman WWI flying ace
- drug baronsCriminal enterprise leaders
- coal baronsPowerful mine owners
- cattle baronWealthy large-herd rancher
baron, baronial, baroness, baronet, barony, baronetcy, baronies, baronesses