proprietorship

noun

pro·​pri·​e·​tor·​ship prə-ˈprī-ə-tər-ˌship 

plural proprietorships

1

: the state or fact of being a proprietor : ownership

proprietorship of a medical product

proprietorship of a copyright

English proprietorship of Dunkirk was brief, because four years later King Charles II sold the port to France for ready cash—five million livres.

—Niger Calder

2

: something (such as a business) owned by a proprietor

Hispanic residents are filling the economic niche of mom-and-pop operations and other small proprietorships …

—Raymond Hernandez

especially : sole proprietorship

3

history : ownership of a colony (such as one of the original American colonies) that includes full prerogatives of establishing a government and distributing land

Six of the colonies that eventually would form the nation were either founded or came under English rule during that period: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (including Delaware), and North and South Carolina. All were proprietorships: that is, like Maryland they were granted in their entirety to one man or a group of men, who both held title to the soil and controlled the government. Charles II gave these vast American holdings as rewards to the men who had supported him during his years of exile.

—Mary Beth Norton et al.

Examples of proprietorship in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 1961, the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first man up there, sparking an immediate bidding war with the US for proprietorship of the moon. —Damon Wise, Deadline, 8 July 2024

The American antimonopoly vision also played a foundational role in the decades-long fight to break the slave power, which many Americans considered a monopolistic threat to the system of small proprietorship that the U.S. government had cultivated. —Barry C. Lynn, Foreign Affairs, 22 June 2021

Why not flail around in defense of my all-American single proprietorship? —William T. Vollmann, Harper's Magazine, 16 Oct. 2023

The awards — which have been given out to local proprietorships for over three decades — this year were sponsored by HarborOne Bank. —BostonGlobe.com, 1 June 2023

However, a proprietorship can only have one owner. —Tom Cooney and Crystal Faulkner, The Enquirer, 5 Oct. 2020

Elon antagonists railed against his proprietorship. —Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 18 Nov. 2022

Yet Maphorisa’s response to the Davido fan seemed to encourage a fuller understanding of the hybrids rather than expressing proprietorship over them. —Mankaprr Conteh, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2022

Your initial choice of your business form – proprietorship, corporate, LLC, partnership or other – will determine the afterlife of your business. —Dallas News, 9 Jan. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1669, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing proprietorship

• sole proprietorship

Legal Definition

proprietorship

noun

pro·​pri·​e·​tor·​ship

1

: the fact or state of being a proprietor

2

: a business entity consisting of a single owner : sole proprietorship compare corporation, partnership