What is "peer of the realm"

n. 1 (context UK English) Any member of the House of Lords who is not a life peer. 2 (context UK historical English) Any member of the hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, (context chiefly English) of the Kingdom of England. 3 Any similar member of the nobility of other kingdoms.

n. a peer who is entitled to sit in the House of Lords

Peer of the Realm is a term for a member of the (aristocratic) highest social order (not considering the ruling dynasty) in a kingdom, notably:

• a member of the peerage in the British Isles who is a hereditary peer or a life peer
• the English rendering of a member of a similar order in other monarchies, derived from the French noble style of pair as used in
  • the French kingdom
  • the crusader state kingdom of Jerusalem
• nobility proper of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who enjoyed hereditary paritas: those who would sit by hereditary right in Land Parliaments, or be Royal Electors, enjoy personal immunity, and the right to be judged only by the King's Court or the Court of Peers; also the exclusive right to be granted State or Land dignities and titles. The Skartabelli who were middle-nobility in law were not peers, whilst noblemen who were not direct barons of the Crown but held land from other Lords were not peers de facto as they would not enjoy full noble privileges.