british empire
noun
Simple meaning
The United Kingdom and its overseas dependencies and colonies.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
britihshehmpyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹɪtɪˈʃɛmpaɪɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chiefly historical
The United Kingdom and its overseas dependencies and colonies.
A former empire consisting of Great Britain and all the territories under its control; reached its greatest extent at the end of World War I; it included the British Isles, British West Indies, Canada, British Guiana; British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A former empire consisting of Great Britain and all the territories under its control; reached its greatest extent at the end of World War I; it included the British Isles, British West Indies, Canada, British Guiana; British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand
Used this way, british empire is a specialist word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Warm and admiring
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.