[mon-erk, -ahrk] 
| 1. | a hereditary sovereign, as a king, queen, or emperor. |
| 2. | a sole and absolute ruler of a state or nation. |
| 3. | a person or thing that holds a dominant position: a monarch of international shipping. |
| 4. | monarch butterfly. |
| a large, deep-orange butterfly, Danaus plexippus, having black and white markings, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of milkweed. |
| mon·arch (mŏn'ərk, -ärk') n.
[Middle English monarke, from Old French monarque, from Late Latin monarcha, from Greek monarkhos : mono-, mono- + arkhein, to rule.] mo·nar'chal (mə-när'kəl), mo·nar'chic (-kĭk), mo·nar'chi·cal (-kĭ-kəl) adj., mo·nar'chal·ly, mo·nar'chi·cal·ly adv. |
monarch
any of about 60 bird species constituting the subfamily Monarchinae of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The term monarch is usually reserved for members of the Australian and Asian genera Monarcha and Hypothymis; the members of about 12 other Asian and African genera of monarchines are called flycatchers, with various modifiers.
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