emperor

Syllables: em·pe·rorUK/ˈɛmp(ə)ɹə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈemp(ə)ɹə/

emperor noun: the male monarch or ruler of an empire.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

emperor (plural emperors)

The male monarch or ruler of an empire.
- In imperial China, it was often a responsibility of the emperor to evaluate his predecessor after the latter's death.
- They asked Julius Caesar, the valiant Roman emperor, what was the best death. He answered, that which is unexpected, which comes suddenly and unforeseen1885, John Ormsby, transl., Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Volume 2 Chapter XXIV
Any monarch ruling an empire, irrespective of gender, with "empress" contrasting to mean the consort of an emperor.
- In 690 Wu usurped the throne and became Emperor herself, which proved a unique event in the history of China.1994, Het Spinhuis, Transactions: Essays in Honor of Jeremy F. Boissevain
- After his death in 683 she ruled for seven years as regent and then, deposing her son, became emperor herself, the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title.2002, The Heritage of World Civilizations: To 1700, page 226
(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.
The fourth trump or major arcana card of the tarot deck.
A large, relatively valuable marble in children's games.
- 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 […]2001, Paul Webley, The economic psychology of everyday life, page 39
Any fish of the family Lethrinidae.
Any of various butterflies of the subfamily Charaxinae.
Any of various large dragonflies of the cosmopolitan genus Anax.
An emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri).
- We do not know if the emperors are monogamous. I know some of the penguins species mate for life.2008, Gloria Clifford, Emperor Penguins: The Lords of Antarctica
- During pairing, mates walk an average of only 90 m per day, and, while incubating, male emperors move an average of 30 m per day.2012, Lloyd S. Davis, John T. Darby, Penguin Biology, page 273

Noun (2) capitalized: Emperor

Emperor (plural Emperors)

The title of an emperor.
- As military attaché to the British Embassy in Berlin he enjoyed the esteem of Emperors William and Frederick.1902, The Outlook, page 701
(alternative) Alternative form of emperor (emperor penguin).
- Certainly LH levels rise in female Emperors during the brooding (guard) phase of chick rearing and decrease significantly in females that have lost their chicks, suggesting that there is a link between brooding behaviour and elevated LH levels.2010, Lloyd Spencer Davis, Martin Renner, Penguins, page 128
- Most Emperor breeding failures are actually caused by their fellow penguins: either a mate's careless transfer of the egg, or when a disgruntled neighbor's aggressive action slides or breaks the egg.2011, David Salomon, Penguin-Pedia, page 29

emperor meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

emperor in Hindi

ruler of an empire: सम्राट samrāṭ, महाराजा mahārājā, चक्रवर्ती cakravartī, अधिराज adhirāj

emperor in Marathi

ruler of an empire: सम्राट samrāṭ

emperor in Urdu

ruler of an empire: شَہَنْشاہ śahanśāh, سَمْراٹ samrāṭ, قَیصَر qaisar

emperor in Bengali

ruler of an empire: সম্রাট śomraṭ

More languagesFewer languages

emperor in Telugu: చక్రవర్తి cakravarti
emperor in Malayalam: സാമ്രാട്ട് sāmrāṭṭŭ, ചക്രവർത്തി cakravaṟtti
emperor in Kannada: ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿ, ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿಯು, ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿಯ
emperor in Punjabi: ਸਮਰਾਟ samrāṭ
emperor in Sanskrit: अधिराज adhirāja, सम्राज् samrāj, राजाधिराज rājādhirāja
emperor in Nepali: सम्राट
emperor in Pashto: امپراتور amparātur, کيسر kaysar, قيصر qaysar
emperor in Tagalog: emperador
emperor in Arabic: قَيْصَر qayṣar, إِمْبْرَاطُور ʔimbrāṭūr
emperor in Malay: kaisar, maharaja, khakan
emperor in Indonesian: kaisar, maharaja
emperor in Thai: จักรพรรดิ jàk-grà-pát, ฮ่องเต้ hɔ̂ng-dtêe
emperor in Vietnamese: hoàng đế, thiên hoàng
emperor in Myanmar: ဧကရာဇ် eka.raj
Dzongkha: རྒྱལ་ཆེན rgyal chen

Examples of emperor in a sentence

Empress, imperial regent, and even emperor herself (r. 797–802), Irene was an important and powerful figure at the Byzantine court in the late eighth and early ninth century.2008, Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation, page 211:
Originally the wife of the emperor, she engineered the imperial succession so that she could serve first as regent to a boy emperor and then as emperor herself.2013, Voyages in World History, page 213:
I have a summons for him direct from the galactic emperor herself.2016, Commander Pakydus, Sindbad & the 7 Galaxies:
If they were emperors, I wanted a better view.2019, Lindsay McCrae, My Penguin Year: Living with the Emperors:

All 40 example sentences with emperor

Forms of emperor

plural	emperors
plural	Emperors
alternative form (obsolete)	emperour

Plural of emperor: emperors

Origin of emperor

From Middle English emperour, from Anglo-Norman emperour, from Latin imperātorem, derived from imperō (“to command”). Doublet of imperator. Displaced earlier Old English casere, from Latin Caesar.

Words formed from emperor

Phrases with emperor

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about emperor

What does emperor mean?: Emperor means the male monarch or ruler of an empire.
What is emperor in Hindi?: Emperor in Hindi is सम्राट (samrāṭ), महाराजा (mahārājā), चक्रवर्ती (cakravartī). See Emperor meaning in Hindi.
How do you use emperor in a sentence?: Empress, imperial regent, and even emperor herself (r. 797–802), Irene was an important and powerful figure at the Byzantine court in the late eighth and early ninth century.
What part of speech is emperor?: Emperor is a noun.
How do you pronounce emperor?: Emperor is pronounced /ˈɛmp(ə)ɹə/ (UK).
What is the plural of emperor?: The plural of emperor is emperors.

Words near emperor in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: emperor (page history and authors); Emperor (page history and authors); emperor (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); emperor (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-emperor.ogg.

Cite this entry: “emperor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/emperor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.