empire

See also: empiré

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, 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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ĕmʹpīr, ĕmʹpī-ər, IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpaɪə/, /ˈɛmpaɪ.ə/
• (General American) enPR: ĕmʹpīr', ĕmʹpī'ər, IPA^(key): /ˈɛmˌpaɪɹ/, /ˈɛmˌpaɪɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: em‧pire

Noun

empire (plural empires)

1. A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority.
2. A political unit that controls at least one kingdom under its vassalage.
3. A group of states or other territories that owe allegiance to a foreign power.
4. A state ruled by an emperor.
5. An expansive and wealthy corporation.

   the McDonald's fast food empire

Derived terms

Terms derived from empire

• Austrian Empire
• British Empire
• Byzantine Empire
• Celestial Empire
• Central African Empire
• colonial empire

• empirehood
• Empire of Japan
• First French Empire
• German Empire
• global empire
• Holy Roman Empire

• Ottoman Empire
• Portuguese Empire
• Roman Empire
• Russian Empire
• Second French Empire
• Spanish Empire

Related terms

• emperor
• imperial
• imperium

Translations

political unit

• Albanian: perandori (sq)
• Arabic: إِمْبِرَاطُورِيَّة‏‎ f (ʾimbirāṭūriyya)
• Armenian: կայսրություն (hy) (kaysrutʿyun)
• Aromanian: amirãrilji f, vãsilii f, duvleti
• Asturian: imperiu m
• Azeri: imperiya
• Belarusian: імпе́рыя f (impjéryja)
• Bulgarian: импе́рия f (impérija)
• Catalan: imperi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 帝國 (zh), 帝国 (zh) (dìguó)

• Czech: říše (cs) f, impérium (cs) n
• Danish: imperium n, kejserrige n
• Dutch: rijk (nl) n, keizerrijk (nl) n
• Esperanto: imperio (eo)
• Estonian: impeerium
• Faroese: ríki n
• Finnish: imperiumi (fi), valtakunta (fi)
• French: empire (fr)
• Friulian: imperi m
• Galician: imperio m
• Georgian: იმპერია (imṗeria)
• German: Reich (de) n
• Greek: αυτοκρατορία (el) f (aftokratoría)
• Hebrew: אִימְפֶּרְיָה‏‎ (he) f (imperiah)
• Hindi: साम्राज्य (hi) (sāmrājya)
• Hungarian: birodalom (hu), impérium (hu), császárság (hu)
• Ido: imperio (io)
• Indonesian: kekaisaran (id)
• Irish: impireacht f
• Italian: impero (it) m
• Japanese: 帝国 (ja) (ていこく, teikoku)
• Kazakh: империя (ïmperïya)
• Khmer: ចក្រភព (km) (chak pʰup)
• Korean: 제국 (ko) (jeguk) (帝國 (ko))
• Kyrgyz: империя (ky) (imperiya)
• Lao: ຈັກກະພັດ (chak ka phat)

• Latin: imperium (la) n
• Latvian: impērija f
• Lithuanian: imperija (lt) f
• Macedonian: империја f (imperija)
• Malay: empayar (ms)
• Maori: emepaea
• Marathi: साम्राज्य n (sāmrājya)
• Mongolian: хаант улс (haant uls), ноёрхол (mn) (nojorhol)
• Norwegian: imperium (no) n
• Occitan: empèri (oc) m, impèri m
• Persian: امپراطوری‏‎ (fa) (emperâturi), شاهنشاهی‏‎ (fa) (šâhanšâhi)
• Polish: imperium (pl) n, cesarstwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: império (pt) m
• Romanian: imperiu (ro) n, împărăție (ro) f
• Russian: импе́рия (ru) f (impérija), ца́рство (ru) n (cárstvo)
• Saterland Frisian: Riek
• Scottish Gaelic: ìmpireachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ѝмпе̄рӣја f, ца̑рство n, ца̏ревина f

  Roman: ìmpērīja (sh) f, cȃrstvo (sh) n, cȁrevina (sh) f

• Sicilian: mpiru (scn) m
• Slovak: ríša f, impérium n
• Slovene: imperij (sl) m
• Spanish: imperio (es) m
• Swedish: imperium (sv) n
• Tagalog: kabagindahan, imperyo
• Tajik: империя (imperiya)
• Thai: จักรวรรดิ (càkkrawàt)
• Tibetan: ཡུལ་ཁམས (yul khams), རྒྱལ་སྲིད (rgyal srid)
• Turkish: imparatorluk (tr)
• Turkmen: imperiýa
• Ukrainian: імпе́рія f (impérija)
• Uzbek: imperiya (uz)
• Venetian: inpero m
• Vietnamese: đế quốc (vi) (帝國)
• Welsh: ymerodraeth f

group of states

• Armenian: կայսրություն (hy) (kaysrutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: импе́рия f (impérija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: imperium n
• Dutch: imperium (nl)
• Esperanto: imperio (eo)
• Estonian: impeerium
• Finnish: imperiumi (fi)
• German: Weltreich (de) n, Imperium (de) n
• Greek: αυτοκρατορία (el) f (aftokratoría)
• Ido: imperio (io)
• Indonesian: imperium (id)
• Irish: impireacht f

• Japanese: 帝国 (ja) (ていこく, teikoku)
• Khmer: ចក្រភព (km) (chak pʰup)
• Latvian: impērija f
• Lithuanian: imperija (lt) f
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: imperium (no) n
• Portuguese: império (pt) m
• Russian: импе́рия (ru) f (impérija)
• Scottish Gaelic: ìmpireachd f
• Spanish: imperio (es) m
• Swedish: imperium (sv) n
• Tibetan: གོང་མའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ (gong ma'i rgyal khab), ཡུལ་ཁམས (yul khams)
• Ukrainian: імпе́рія f (impérija)

state ruled by an emperor

• Albanian: perandori (sq)
• Armenian: կայսրություն (hy) (kaysrutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: импе́рия f (impérija)
• Catalan: imperi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 帝國 (zh), 帝国 (zh) (Dìguó)

• Czech: císařství n
• Danish: kejserdømme n, kejserrige n
• Dutch: keizerrijk (nl) n
• Esperanto: imperio (eo)
• Estonian: keisririik
• Finnish: keisarikunta (fi)
• French: empire (fr) m
• Georgian: იმპერია (imṗeria)
• German: Kaiserreich (de) n, Kaisertum (de) n
• Greek: αυτοκρατορία (el) f (aftokratoría)
• Hungarian: császárság (hu)
• Ido: imperio (io)
• Indonesian: kekaisaran (id)
• Irish: impireacht f
• Japanese: 帝政 (ja) (ていせい, teisei)
• Khmer: អធិរាជាណាចក្រ (atʰiriechie naa chak), រាជាធិរាជាណាចក្រ (riechie tʰiriechie naa chak), ចក្រភព (km) (chak pʰup), អាណាចក្រ (aa naa chak)
• Korean: 제국 (ko) (jeguk)
• Latvian: impērija f
• Lithuanian: imperija (lt) f

• Luxembourgish: Räich
• Maori: emepaea
• Marathi: साम्राज्य n (sāmrājya)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: keiserdømme (no) n

  Nynorsk: keisardøme n

• Polish: imperium (pl) n
• Portuguese: império (pt) m
• Romanian: imperiu (ro) n
• Russian: импе́рия (ru) f (impérija)
• Scottish Gaelic: ìmpireachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ца̑рство n, ца̏ревина f

  Roman: cȃrstvo (sh) n, cȁrevina (sh) f

• Slovak: cisárstvo n
• Slovene: cesarstvo (sl) n
• Spanish: imperio (es) m
• Swedish: kejsardöme (sv) n, imperium (sv) n
• Tagalog: kabagindahan, imperyo
• Tibetan: རྒྱལ་སྲིད (rgyal srid), རྒྱལ་སྲིད་རྒྱས་པ (rgyal srid rgyas pa), རྒྱལ་ཁམས (rgyal khams), ཡུལ་ཁམས (yul khams)
• Turkish: imparatorluk (tr)
• Ukrainian: імпе́рія f (impérija)
• Vietnamese: đế quốc (vi)

area under the power of one person

• Armenian: կայսրություն (hy) (kaysrutʿyun)
• Czech: říše (cs) f
• Danish: imperium n
• Dutch: imperium (nl)
• Esperanto: imperio (eo)
• Estonian: impeerium
• Finnish: imperiumi (fi), valtakunta (fi)
• Greek: αυτοκρατορία (el) f (aftokratoría)

• Ido: imperio (io)
• Japanese: 企業帝国 (きぎょうていこく, kigyō teikoku)
• Khmer: អាណាចក្រ (ak na jak)
• Latvian: impērija f
• Portuguese: império (pt) m
• Russian: импе́рия (ru) f (impérija)
• Swedish: imperium (sv) n
• Ukrainian: імпе́рія f (impérija)

expansive and wealthy corporation

• Irish: impireacht f, ollghnó m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} perandoria
• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} إِمْبْرَاطُورِيَّة‏‎ f (ʾimbrāṭūriyya)
• Catalan: ^{(please verify)} imperi
• French: ^{(please verify)} empire (fr) m
• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} იმპერია (imṗeria)
• German: ^{(please verify)} Imperium (de) n, ^{(please verify)} Reich (de) n
• Gujarati: ^{(please verify)} સામ્રાજય n (sāmrājya)
• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} אימפריה‏‎ (he) f (imperiah)
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} साम्राज्य (sāmrājya)
• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} birodalom (hu)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} impero (it) m
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 帝国 (ja) (ていこく, teikoku)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 제국 (ko) (jeguk)
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} imperium (la) n
• Latvian: ^{(please verify)} impērija f
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} imperija (lt) f
• Low German: ^{(please verify)} Riek n

• Luxembourgish: ^{(please verify)} Räich n
• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} империја f (imperija), ^{(please verify)} царство n (carstvo)
• Malayalam: ^{(please verify)} സാമ്രാജ്യം (sāmrājyaṃ)
• Marathi: ^{(please verify)} राज्य (mr) ? (rājya), ^{(please verify)} शासन ? (śāsan), ^{(please verify)} साम्राज्य ? (sāmrājya)
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} imperium (no) n
• Papiamentu: ^{(please verify)} imperio
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} ѝмпе̄рӣја f, ^{(please verify)} ца̑рство n, ^{(please verify)} ца̏ревина f

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} ìmpērīja (sh) f, ^{(please verify)} cȃrstvo (sh) n, ^{(please verify)} cȁrevina (sh) f

• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} ríša f, ^{(please verify)} impérium n
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} cesarstvo n, ^{(please verify)} imperij m
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} imperio (es) m
• Thai: ^{(please verify)} จักรวรรดิ (jàkruanrádì)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} imparatorluk
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} đế quốc
• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} ymerodraeth
• West Frisian: ^{(please verify)} keizerryk n

Further reading

• empire in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• empire in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• empire at OneLook Dictionary Search

Adjective

empire (not comparable)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Empire

Anagrams

• E-Prime, epimer, permie, premie

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French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin imperium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃piʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

empire m (plural empires)

1. empire
2. influence, authority

Related terms

• empereur
• impératrice
• imperial

Descendants

• Russian: ампи́р (ampír)

Verb

empire

1. first-person singular present indicative of empirer
2. third-person singular present indicative of empirer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of empirer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of empirer
5. second-person singular imperative of empirer

Anagrams

• périmé, primée

Further reading

• “empire” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Alternative forms

• empiere

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *implīre, present active infinitive of *impliō, from Latin impleō.

Verb

empire

1. (transitive, obsolete) to fill, to overflow

Synonyms

• riempire

Related terms

• pieno

Conjugation

    Conjugation of empire

infinitive	empire
auxiliary verb		avere	gerund		empiendo
present participle		empiendo	past participle		empito
person	singular			plural
	first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative	io	tu	lui/lei, esso/essa	noi	voi	loro, essi/esse
present	empio	empi	empie	empiamo	empite	empiono
imperfect	empivo	empivi	empiva	empivamo	empivate	empivano
past historic	empii, empiei	empisti, empiesti	empì, empié	empimmo, empiemmo	empiste, empieste	empirono, empierono
future	empirò	empirai	empirà	empiremo	empirete	empiranno
conditional	io	tu	lui/lei, esso/essa	noi	voi	loro, essi/esse
present	empirei	empiresti	empirebbe	empiremmo	empireste	empirebbero
subjunctive	che io	che tu	che lui/che lei, che esso/che essa	che noi	che voi	che loro, che essi/che esse
present	empia	empia	empia	empiamo	empiate	empiano
imperfect	empissi	empissi	empisse	empissimo	empiste	empissero
imperative	—	tu	Lei	noi	voi	Loro
		empi, non empire	empia	empiamo	empite	empiano

Anagrams

• permei
• premei