- A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. See synonyms at right.
- Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as a prerogative of status or rank, and exercised to the exclusion or detriment of others.
- The principle of granting and maintaining a special right or immunity: a society based on privilege.
- Protection from being forced to disclose confidential communications in certain relationships, as between attorney and client, physician and patient, or priest and confessor.
- Protection from being sued for libel or slander for making otherwise actionable statements in a context or forum where open and candid expression is deemed desirable for reasons of public policy.
- An option to buy or sell a stock, including put, call, spread, and straddle.
- To grant a privilege to.
- To free or exempt.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin prīvilēgium, a law affecting one person : prīvus, single, alone + lēx, lēg-, law.]






