Aristocracy

1. n. The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class or patrician order; (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect.
2. n. Government by the best citizens.
3. n. A ruling body composed of the best citizens.
4. n. A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order; an oligarchy.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.