regnare

Regnare is a Latin verb of the first conjugation meaning to rule or to reign, to exercise sovereign authority over a people or territory. It can also be used metaphorically to signify flourishing or predominance in a given domain. In classical Latin it is typically intransitive, with the subject as the ruler, as in Rex regnat, “The king reigns.” It can appear in phrases expressing duration of rule or the act of ruling, and its sense extends to governing or dominating.

The principal parts are regnō, regnāre, regnāvī, regnātum. As a regular first-conjugation verb, its present indicative forms include regnō, regnās, regnat; imperfect and future forms follow the common regn- pattern. Etymologically, regnare derives from the stem regn-, paired with the infinitive ending -āre. It is connected to the noun regnum “kingdom, realm, rule” and to related adjectives such as regalis “royal” and regnant “ruling,” which have left their marks on Romance languages and English.

In English, regnare yields the verb reign (via Old French reigne) and related terms such as reign, regnant, and regal. The noun reign denotes the period during which a sovereign rules; regnant is an adjective describing someone who is currently ruling.

See also regnum, regalis, regal, reign, regent, regnant. References for further reading include standard Latin dictionaries such as Lewis and Short.