free imperial city

free imperial city noun: a self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet.

Noun

free imperial city (plural free imperial cities)

(historical) A self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet.
- A free imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy, and was thus subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, whereas a territorial city or town (Landstadt) was subordinate to a territorial prince – either an ecclesiastical lord (prince-bishop or prince-abbot) or a secular prince (duke...
- The city-states of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire had their origins as free imperial cities, a term coined in the late eleventh century.1996, John Dornberg, Western Europe, Oryx Press, page 56

self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire subordinate only to the emperor: আজাদ শাহী শহর azad śahi śôhôr

plural	free imperial cities
alternative form	free and imperial city

A calque of German Freie Reichsstadt (short singular form of Freie und Reichsstädte) or Latin urbs imperialis libera.

What does free imperial city mean?: Free imperial city means a self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet.
What is free imperial city in Bengali?: Free imperial city in Bengali is আজাদ শাহী শহর (azad śahi śôhôr). See Free imperial city meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is free imperial city?: Free imperial city is a noun.
What is the plural of free imperial city?: The plural of free imperial city is free imperial cities.

Adapted from Wiktionary: free imperial city (page history and authors). 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

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