empire
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A large powerful country that rules over many other territories
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehmpyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛmpaɪɚ
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
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.
A monarchy with an emperor as head of state
A group of countries under a single authority
“The British created a great empire.”
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.
The domain ruled by an emperor or empress; the region over which imperial dominion is exercised
adjective
of a woman's dress
Having the waistline just below the bust; featuring an empire waist.
Alternative letter-case form of Empire.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A group of countries under a single authority
Used this way, empire is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The British created a great empire.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use empire
- “The British created a great empire.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Derived from experiment and observation rather than theory.
In an empirical manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
British, anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth.
A Mid-Atlantic state.
A skyscraper built in New York City in 1931.
A continuation of the Roman Empire in the Middle East after its division in 395.
A continuation of the Roman Empire in the Middle East after its division in 395.
An ancient empire to the west of Israel.
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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.