poet laureate

noun

plural poets laureate or poet laureates

1

: a poet honored for achievement

2

a

: a poet appointed for life by an English sovereign as a member of the royal household and formerly expected to compose poems for court and national occasions

b

: a poet appointed annually by the U.S. Library of Congress as a consultant and typically involved in the promotion of poetry

3

: one regarded by a country or region as its most eminent or representative poet

Examples of poet laureate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The nation’s poet laureate is Time magazine, its much-mocked style rendered here as verse: on both sides of the iron curtain the world heard with a thrill of east berlin’s rebellion in the rain … As the execution nears, crowds stream into Times Square. —Alexander Nazaryan, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2024

The selected poet laureate will be notified in March 2025. —Asher Price, Axios, 3 Oct. 2024

America’s poet laureate, the incandescent Ada Limón, was asked to write a poem that would be inscribed on the spacecraft. —Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024

Wilkinson is former poet laureate from Kentucky and a member of the Affrilachian Poets collective who has helped shift perceptions of Appalachian culture and rural Black America. —Betty Hallock, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

poet laureate

noun

plural poets laureate or poet laureates

1

: a poet appointed by an English ruler as a member of the royal household and formerly expected to write poems for court and national occasions

2

: a poet regarded by a country or region as its most outstanding