A coronet is a small crown, simpler and less grand than the towering crowns worn by kings and queens. While a monarch's crown might be heavy with jewels and gold, reaching high above the head, a coronet sits more modestly, often worn by nobles of lower rank like dukes, earls, or barons.

In medieval Europe, different ranks of nobility wore coronets with distinct designs. A duke's coronet might have strawberry leaves around the rim, while a baron's had only six silver balls. These details weren't just decoration: they were a visual code that instantly told everyone your family's rank and status.

You'll see coronets in old paintings of aristocrats, on family coats of arms, and in historical dramas. Today, outside of formal ceremonies in places like Britain, coronets mostly appear in museums, though the word survives in phrases like “coroneted heads” to describe noble families. Even horses have a coronet, though in that case it means the band of skin at the top of the hoof, named for its crown-like circle around the hoof.