high king

• high-king, highking

From Middle English *heah-kyng, from Old English hēahcyning (“high-king; God”), equivalent to high +‎ king.

high king (plural high kings)

1. A chief king or ruler; a great, superior, or supreme king; a king of kings.

   Hyponym: ardri

   • 1950, The Journal of Celtic studies - Volume 1 - Page 80:

     […] is eighth in descent from Aedh Slaine, Highking of Ireland, in the Southern Uí Néill pedigrees.

   • 2012, Holly Taylor, Dreamer's Cycle Series:

     Idris, the first High King, had silvery eyes in a face lined with years of bright laughter and unspeakable sorrow.

   • 2012, Charles Oman, A History of the Art of War:

     This time it was Roderic O'Connor, the high-king of all Ireland, with sixty thousand men levied from all the clans of the island. They encamped around Dublin in four separate bodies – the high-king and his men of Connaught at Castle Knock; [...]

   • 2012, Togail na Tebe: The Thebaid of Statius - Page 281:

     " […] And health to thee, O high-king, after I am gone, and to all the nobles of the Greeks.”

2. (often capitalised) God.

• high kingship