empire
Pronunciation: /ˈɛm.paɪ̯ə̯/
The English word “empire” has 5 meanings listed here.
noun
- A political state, often a monarchy, that has achieved a much greater current size than its initial size by conquering surrounding territories, cities or nations.
- A political unit ruled by an emperor or empress.
- The group of states or other territories that owe allegiance to an imperial power (foreign to them), when distinguished from the native territory of that power; imperial possessions.
- An expansive and powerful enterprise under the control of one person or group.
- control, dominion, sway.
Etymology
From Middle English empire, from Old French empire, empere, from Latin imperium, inperium (“command, control, dominion, sovereignty, a dominion, empire”), from imperare, inperare (“to command, order”), from in (“in, on”) + parare (“to make ready, order”). Doublet of empery and imperium.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.