Ar'is-tōc'ra-cy, n.
n. [Gr. ἀριστοκρατία, from ἄρισ-τος, best, and κρατεῖν, to be strong, to rule, from κράτος, strength.]
Sense 1. A governing body composed of the best men in the state. [Obs. and very rare.]
If the Senate Right not our quest in this, I will protest them To all the world, no aristocracy. B. Jonson.
Sense 2. A form of government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order.
The aristocracy of Venice hath admitted so many abuses, through the degeneracy of the nobles, that the period of its duration seems to approach. Swift.
Sense 3. The nobility or chief persons in a state.