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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
earldom
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was compensated by being raised, on 19 June 1627, to the earldom of Sunderland.
▪ In 1930 he succeeded to the earldom and to an alarming load of debt.
▪ In the prince's earldom of Chester there were even fewer changes.
▪ Lieutenant Denholm is the heir to an earldom.
▪ The Duke's lesser titles include a couple of earldoms, a barony or two and the lordship of Eskdale.
▪ Their union, in 1664, had only produced one daughter before he was killed; the earldom became extinct.
▪ Three of his daughters by Elizabeth married into families holding the earldoms of Suffolk, Lincoln, and Rutland.
▪ When the heir to the Spencer earldom got married three years ago, Guppy was his best man.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Earldom

Earldom \Earl"dom\, n. [AS. eorl-d?m; eorl man, noble + -d?m -dom.]

  1. The jurisdiction of an earl; the territorial possessions of an earl.

  2. The status, title, or dignity of an earl.

    He [Pulteney] shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.
    --Chesterfield.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
earldom

Old English eorldom; see earl + -dom.

Wiktionary
earldom

n. 1 the rank of being an earl 2 The territory controlled by an earl

WordNet
earldom
  1. n. the dignity or rank or position of an earl or countess

  2. the domain controlled by an earl or count or countess

Usage examples of "earldom".

Scunthorpe, and, with the praiseworthy notion of introducing Bertram into better company, made him known to one of the most disinterested of her admirers, young Lord Wivenhoe, heir to an affluent Earldom, and known to the greater part of London as Chuffy Wivenhoe, an affectionate sobriquet earned for him by his round, good-humoured countenance.

He conferred on him the whole estate of William Peverell, which had escheated to the crown: he put him in possession of eight castles, with all the forests and honors annexed to them: he delivered over to him no less than six earldoms, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Nottingham, Dorset, Lancaster and Derby.

Since the witan met wherever the king was and Edward had never been to the north, no national gemot within memory had been held in the northern earldoms of Mercia or Northumbria.

Longchamp, presumptuous in his nature, elated by the favor which he enjoyed with his master, and armed with the legantine commission, could not submit to an equality with the bishop of Durham: he even went so far as to arrest his colleague, and to extort from him a resignation of the earldom of Northumberland, and of his other dignities, as the price of his liberty.

Norse or Ostman kingdom in Ireland, and in 878 the Norse earldom of the Orkneys, while about the same time the first Vikings seem to have reached the White Sea and the extreme North of Europe.

British isles in the civilised West, through the Viking earldoms in Caithness, in the Orkneys and the Shetlands, in Man and the Hebrides, and on the coast of Ireland, where the Ostman colonies grew into kingdoms.

He had won his place as tanist the previous fall and was sure to challenge for the earldom itself very shortly.

A few months ago he had challenged one brother for the post of tanist and then another for the earldom itself.

That day has not yet come for you, because you must first win the tanistry and then the earldom of Catterstow.

And as Earl, Vandros knew better than most that both an earldom - particularly during wartime - and an army, lived on gold and silver as much as on meat and grain.

Duke, Vandros might like to have a few years to produce a ducal heir, and then perhaps a younger brother to take the earldom, and might choose to put in Mondegreen as Earl, as sort of a place-holder.

While I hold Duke Brucal of Yabon and Earl Vandros of LaMut in the highest esteem, I cannot swear my allegiance to either the earldom or the duchy.

Therefore, as soon as Claude and Bertrand have been reinherited under Scottish law, I intend that both the earldom and Penderleigh revert to them, just as it would have if the old earl had not cut Douglass out of what was rightfully his.

Also the baronet, whose ancestors were all honourable men and stainless women, found it hard to overlook a certain royal bar-sinister, which had originated the Luxmore earldom, together with a few other blots which had tarnished that scutcheon since.

At the Inverness Parliament the Earl of Atholl and Thomas Randolph offered Bruce their allegiance, the Earl of Atholl was then confirmed in his lands and Randolph was given the Earldom of Moray.