Thane vs. Thegn — What's the Difference?

Thane ([ˈʈʰaːɳeː]) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is also called the city of lakes.

The term thegn, also thane, or thayn in Shakespearean English, is a title within the thanage, a system of nobility predating the peerage. In Anglo-Saxon England, it was commonly applied to aristocratic retainers of a king or senior nobleman and more generally those below the rank of ealdormen, or high-reeve.

(in Anglo-Saxon England) a man who held land granted by the king or by a military nobleman, ranking between an ordinary freeman and a hereditary noble.

Alternative spelling of thane

A freeman granted land by the king in return for military service in Anglo-Saxon England.

Thane. See Thane.

A man ranking above an ordinary freeman and below a nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England.

A feudal lord or baron in Scotland.

(historical) A rank of nobility in pre-Norman England, roughly equivalent to baron.

A dignitary under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England. Of these there were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Conquest, this title was disused, and baron took its place.

A feudal lord or baron

A man ranking above an ordinary freeman and below a noble in Anglo-Saxon England (especially one who gave military service in exchange for land)