Ghibelline
/ˈɡɪbəlin/noun
Ghibelline is a noun meaning “In the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled G-H-I-B-E-L-L-I-N-E, and it appears about once in every 30 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of Ghibelline is Ghibellines.
What does Ghibelline mean?
noun
- 1
In the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs and the Pope.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce Ghibelline?
- US /ˈɡɪbəlin/
- US /ˈɡɪbəlaɪn/
- US /ˈɡɪbələn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Ghibelline.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of Ghibelline
- Ghibellines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is Ghibelline?
Ghibelline appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Ghibelline in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense member of a medieval Italian faction that supported the German emperors:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | Gibelin, gibelin, Gibeline, gibeline |
| German | Ghibelline, Gibelline, Waiblinger |
| Portuguese | gibelino, gibelina |
| Spanish | gibelino, gibelina |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does Ghibelline come from?
From Italian ghibellino, from German Waiblingen, from Middle High German Wibellingen, the name of a castle in Swabia held by the Hohenstaufen dynasty (nowadays in the township of Waiblingen), from Old High German Weibilinga, Weibelingen, possibly a suffixed form of the personal name Wabilo, Wahilo. The emperor's supporters used the name as a rallying cry, which was probably introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, 1155–1190.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).