<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>A British nobleman of a rank below that of marquis and above that of viscount; called count for a time after the Norman conquest.</li><li>The wife of an earl is a countess.</li><li>(In Anglo-Saxon England) a governor of one of the great divisions of England, including East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex.</li></ul>