NOUN
- a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country (especially in the United Kingdom) and formerly possessing distinct political rights
How To Use the three estates In A Sentence
- When the phrase was first coined, the three estates of the body politic were the lords, the clergy and the commons.
- While it is important to note the mutuality of aid among the three estates, it is equally important to note that social ordering, like the ordering of the cosmos as a whole, was firmly hierarchical.