second estate

noun

1. the second of the three estates: the nobles in France; the lords temporal in England. Compare estate ( def 5 ).

second estate

noun

1. rare.
   the nobility collectively

Word History and Origins

Origin of second estate¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

This second estate, an extension of land seized by King Henry III in 1265, encompasses 45,000 acres in England and Wales.

From Washington Post

Both men keep second estates in Palm Beach, Florida, and their shared sensibilities go well beyond their mutual love of deal-making and obsession with celebrity.

From The Guardian

Purple Bricks is the second estate agent to list this year, following Hunters Property Plc.

From Reuters

The first and second estates are not fused into one, simply because they continue to deliberate and vote together as all three did at the first.

From Project Gutenberg

I am just buying 150 acres more at Chocorua, to round off our second estate there.

From Project Gutenberg