Definition of "fourth estate" [fourth estate]

• Journalists considered as a group; the public press. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In fact, it was a sort of fourth estate of the realm; nearly as much so, indeed, as the Newspaper Press is in our time."