emperor

See also: Emperor

English

Alternative forms

• emperour (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French empereor (Modern French empereur), from Latin imperator (“emperor; commander”), from imperare (“to command”). Doublet of imperator.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpəɹə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpəɹɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

emperor (plural emperors)

1. The male monarch or ruler of an empire.

   Even an emperor is no match for a man with no wants. ― Sri Ramana Maharishi

2. (medieval political theory) Specifically, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire; the world-monarch.

   The Investiture Controversy was a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope.

3. The fourth trump or major arcana card of the tarot deck.
4. A large, relatively valuable marble in children's games.
   • 2001, Paul Webley, The economic psychology of everyday life, page 39:

     But marbles are not only used to play games: they are also traded. In this market, the value of the different kinds of marbles (oilies, emperors, etc.) is determined by local supply and demand and not by the price of the marbles […]

5. Any fish of the family Lethrinidae.

Usage notes

• An emperor is generally addressed as His Imperial Majesty.

Derived terms

Terms derived from emperor

• emperor goose (Anser canagicus)
• emperor moth (Saturniinae)
• emperor paper

• emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)
• emperorship
• little emperor

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to emperor

• empire
• empress

• imperial
• imperialism

• imperially

Translations

ruler of an empire

• Albanian: perandor (sq) m
• Arabic: قَيْصَر‎‎ m (qayṣar), إِمْبْرَاطُور‎‎ m (ʾimbrāṭūr)
• Armenian: կայսր (hy) (kaysr)

  Old Armenian: կայսր (kaysr), կեսար (kesar)

• Aromanian: ampirat m
• Asturian: emperador m
• Azerbaijani: imperator
• Belarusian: імпера́тар m (impjerátar), цар m (car) (tsar)
• Bengali: সম্রাট (sômraṭ)
• Breton: impalaer (br)
• Bulgarian: импера́тор (bg) m (imperátor), цар (bg) m (car) (tsar)
• Burmese: ဧကရာဇ် (my) (eka.raj)
• Catalan: emperador (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 皇帝 (wong⁴ dai³)

  Dungan: хуанди (huandi)

  Mandarin: 皇帝 (zh) (huángdì), 帝王 (zh) (dìwáng), 天皇 (zh) (tiānhuáng) (of Japan)

• Czech: císař (cs) m
• Danish: kejser (da) c
• Dutch: keizer (nl) m
• Esperanto: imperiestro
• Estonian: keiser (et), imperaator
• Extremaduran: emperaol m
• Finnish: keisari (fi)
• French: empereur (fr) m
• Friulian: imperadôr m
• Galician: emperador m
• Georgian: იმპერატორი (imṗeraṭori)
• German: Kaiser (de) m, Imperator m
• Greek: αυτοκράτορας (el) m (aftokrátoras)

  Ancient: αὐτοκράτωρ m (autokrátōr), καῖσαρ m (kaîsar), αὐτάναξ m (autánax)

• Hebrew: קֵיסָר‎‎ (he) m (keysar)
• Hindi: सम्राट​ m (samrāṭ​)
• Hungarian: császár (hu)
• Icelandic: keisari (is) m
• Ido: cezaro (io)
• Indonesian: kaisar (id), maharaja (id)
• Interlingua: imperator
• Irish: impire m
• Italian: imperatore (it) m
• Japanese: 皇帝 (ja) (こうてい, kōtei) (Emperor in general), 帝王 (ja) (ていおう, teiō) (general term for emperor or monarch), 天皇 (ja) (てんのう, tennō) (Emperor of Japan)
• Kazakh: император (ïmperator)
• Khmer: អធិរាជ (km) (atʰiriech), ព្រះចៅអធិរាជ (preah chav atʰiriech), រាជាធិរាជ (riechie tʰiriech)
• Korean: 황제 (ko) (hwangje), 천황 (ko) (cheonhwang) (of Japan)
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: emperator (ku), qeyser (ku)

• Kyrgyz: император (ky) (imperator)
• Lao: ຈັກກະພັດ (chak ka phat), ຈັກກະວັດ (chak ka wat), ນໍຣິນ (nǭ rin), ນໍລິນ (nǭ lin), ຣາເຊນ (rā sēn)
• Latin: imperātor (la) m
• Latvian: imperators m, ķeizars
• Lithuanian: imperatorius m, ciesorius m

• Luxembourgish: Keeser
• Macedonian: импера́тор m (imperátor), цар m (car) (tsar)
• Malay: kaisar, maharaja, khakan
• Malayalam: സാമ്രാട്ട് (sāmrāṭṭŭ)
• Mandinka: mansa
• Manx: ard-ree m
• Maori: emepara, epara
• Marathi: सम्राट m (samrāṭ)
• Mongolian: эзэн хаан (ezen haan)
• Norman: empéreu m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: keiser (no) m

  Nynorsk: keisar m

• Occitan: emperador (oc) m

  Old Occitan: emperador

• Old English: cāsere m
• Persian: امپراطور‎‎ (fa) (emperâtor)
• Polish: imperator (pl) m, cesarz (pl) m
• Portuguese: imperador (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਮਰਾਟ (pa) (samrāṭ)
• Quechua: qhapaq
• Romanian: împărat (ro) m
• Romansch: imperatur m, imperataur m, imperatour m, caiser m
• Russian: импера́тор (ru) m (imperátor), царь (ru) m (carʹ) (tsar)
• Scottish Gaelic: ìmpire
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ца̏р m, импѐра̄тор m, це̏са̄р m

  Latin: cȁr (sh) m, impèrātor (sh) m, cȅsār (sh) m

• Sicilian: mpiraturi
• Slovak: cisár (sk) m, cár (sk) m (of Russia, Bulgaria)
• Slovene: cêsar (sl) m, imperátor m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kejžor m

  Upper Sorbian: kejžor m

• Spanish: emperador (es) m
• Swahili: kaisari
• Swedish: kejsare (sv)
• Tagalog: baginda, emperador (tl)
• Tajik: император (imperator)
• Thai: จักรพรรดิ (jàk-grà-pát), ฮ่องเต้ (hɔ̂ng-dtêe) (emperor of China)
• Turkish: imparator (tr), ilhan (tr)
• Turkmen: imperator
• Ukrainian: імпера́тор m (imperátor), цар (uk) m (car) (tsar)
• Urdu: سمراٹ‎‎ m (samrāṭ)
• Uzbek: imperator (uz)
• Venetian: inperadore, inperador
• Vietnamese: hoàng đế (vi), thiên hoàng (of Japan)
• Vilamovian: kazer m
• Walloon: impreur (wa) m
• Welsh: ymerawdwr
• Yiddish: קייסער‎‎ m (keyser), אימפּעראַטאָר‎‎ m (imperator)

fourth trump or major arcana card

Anagrams

• per orem