empress
/ˈɛmpɹəs/
empress noun: the female monarch (ruler) of an empire. Also the rare form of impress.
Noun (1)
empress (plural empresses)
- The female monarch (ruler) of an empire.
- Sit downe by her: adorned with my Crowne,
As if thou wert the Empreſſe of the world.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- Sit downe by her: adorned with my Crowne,
- The wife or widow of an emperor or equated ruler.
- 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
- The third trump or major arcana card of most tarot decks.
- A female chimpanzee.
- A deciduous tree, Paulownia tomentosa
- A fairy chess piece which combines the moves of the rook and the knight.
Noun (2) capitalized: Empress
Empress (plural Empresses)
- The title of an empress.
- The opening through which French taste jumped was Peter the Great’s “window on Europe,” the new Russian capital he built on the Neva River in 1703 to give Russians greater proximity to European culture, and to showcase Russia’s wealth and burgeoning cultural institutions. It took the better part of...2003 March 3, Jo Ann Lewis, “An empress’ Louvre and labor of love”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Nov 2025
- Japan’s Empress Michiko, left, being welcomed by Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India, in New Delhi. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are in India on a state visit to commemorate the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.2013 December 2, “Image of the Day: December 2”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2013
Proper noun capitalized: Empress
Empress
Also used as
empress is also the rare form of impress.
empress meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
empress in Hindi
- female monarch of an empire
- महारानी mahārānī, साम्राज्ञी sāmrājñī, मलिका malikā, सुल्ताना sultānā
empress in Marathi
- सम्राज्ञी, साम्राज्ञी, सम्राज्ञीला
empress in Urdu
- female monarch of an empire
- مہارانی mahārānī, ملکہ malikā, سلطانہ sultānā
empress in Bengali
- female monarch of an empire
- সম্রাজ্ঞী śomrajni
- wife or widow of an emperor
- সম্রাজ্ঞী śomrajni
More languagesFewer languages
- empress in Telugu
- చక్రవర్తిని cakravartini
- empress in Kannada
- ಸಾಮ್ರಾಜ್ಞಿ, ಸಮ್ರಾಜ್ಞಿ
- empress in Gujarati
- સમ્રાજ્ઞી samrājñī
- empress in Odia
- ସମ୍ରାଜ୍ଞୀ, ସାମ୍ରାଜ୍ଞୀ
- empress in Nepali
- सम्राज्ञी, साम्राज्ञी, सम्राज्ञीलाई
- empress in Pashto
- امپراتوره amparātoāra
- empress in Arabic
- إِمْبِرَاطُورَة ʔimbirāṭūra, مَلِكَة malika, قَيْصَرَة qayṣara, إِمْبْرَاطُورَة ʔimbrāṭūra
- empress in Malay
- maharani, permaisuri
- empress in Indonesian
- maharani, maharatu
- empress in Persian
- امپراتریس emperâtris, ملکه maleke
- empress in Thai
- จักรพรรดินี jàk-grà-pát-dì-nii, ราชินี raa-chí-nii
- empress in Vietnamese
- hoàng hậu, nữ hoàng
- empress in Myanmar
- ဧကရီ eka.ri
Examples of empress in a sentence
- Empress, I advise you that your audience with the Prime Minister is in 15 minutes, ma'am.
- The dowager empress detested the Vladimirovichs and allegedly sought another solution.
- What was her name, something barbaric, an empress, not Cleopatra - Theodora.
Forms of empress
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | empresses |
| plural | Empresses |
| alternative form (obsolete) | emperess |
| alternative form (obsolete) | empresse |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | empresses |
| present participle | empressing |
| past participle | empressed |
| past | empressed |
Origin of empress
From Middle English emperice, emperesse, from Anglo-Norman and Old French empereriz, from Latin imperatrix, equivalent to emperor + -ess. Doublet of imperatrix. Compare modern French impératrice.
From Middle English empresse, from Anglo-Norman enpresser (“to press, to imprint”), from Old French empresser. Attested from the 15th or late 14th century.
From empress. The village was named in 1913 for Queen Victoria, who was Empress of India.
Words formed from empress
Phrases with empress
Words that rhyme with empress
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- SMS
- success
- compress
- largesse
- ness
- profess
- confess
- distress
- regress
- depress
- excess
- guess
- prepossess
- undress
- CBS
- ingress
- oppress
- redress
- transgress
- assess
- cess
- duress
- fess
- fluoresce
- Hesse
- less
- mayoress
- obsess
- tress
- unless
- yes
- accresce
- acquiesce
- aggress
- BESS
- caress
- clothes press
- congress
- defervesce
- digress
- ess
- foulness
- Hess
- intumesce
- jess
- lazy S
- liquesce
- repress
Questions about empress
- What does empress mean?
- Empress means the female monarch (ruler) of an empire.
- What is empress in Hindi?
- Empress in Hindi is महारानी (mahārānī), साम्राज्ञी (sāmrājñī), मलिका (malikā). See Empress meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is empress?
- Empress can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce empress?
- Empress is pronounced /ˈɛmpɹəs/.
- What is the plural of empress?
- The plural of empress is empresses.
Words near empress in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: empress (page history and authors); Empress (page history and authors); empress (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); empress (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); empress (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); empress (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-empress.ogg.
Cite this entry: “empress.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/empress. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.