monarchy
Syllables: mon·ar·chyUK/ˈmɒnəki//ˈmɑnɚki/
monarchy noun: a government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).
Noun
monarchy (countable and uncountable, plural monarchies)
- A government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).
- An absolute monarchy is a monarchy where the monarch is legally the ultimate authority in all temporal matters.
- A constitutional monarchy is a monarchy in which the monarch's power is legally constrained, ranging from where minor concessions have been made to appease certain factions to where the monarch is a figurehead with all real power in the hands of a legislative body.
- The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom.
- What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Synonyms:
- government
- A form of government where sovereignty is embodied by a single ruler in a state and his high aristocracy representing their separate divided lands within the state and their low aristocracy representing their separate divided fiefs.
- States based on a system of governance headed by a king or a queen.
monarchy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
monarchy in Hindi
- form of government with a hereditary head of state
- राजतंत्र rājtantra, बादशाहत bādśāhat
monarchy in Tamil
- form of government with a hereditary head of state
- முடியாட்சி muṭiyāṭci
monarchy in Marathi
- form of government with a hereditary head of state
- राजेशाही rājeśāhī
monarchy in Urdu
- form of government with a hereditary head of state
- بادْشاہَت bādśāhat, سَلْطَنَت saltanat
More languagesFewer languages
- monarchy in Bengali
- রাজতন্ত্র rajotontro
- monarchy in Telugu
- రాచరికం rācarikaṁ
- monarchy in Malayalam
- രാജവാഴ്ച rājavāḻca, രാജാധിപത്യം rājādhipatyaṁ
- monarchy in Kannada
- ರಾಜಪ್ರಭುತ್ವ rājaprabhutva
- monarchy in Punjabi
- ਬਾਦਸ਼ਾਹੀ bādśāhī
- monarchy in Gujarati
- રાજાશાહી rājāśāhī
- monarchy in Odia
- ରାଜତନ୍ତ୍ର rājatantra
- monarchy in Sanskrit
- एकप्रभुत्व ekaprabhutva
- monarchy in Sinhala
- රාජාණ්ඩුව rājāṇḍuwa
- monarchy in Assamese
- ৰাজতন্ত্ৰ razotontro
- monarchy in Nepali
- राजतन्त्र rājatantra
- monarchy in Pashto
- پاچايي pāčāyi, بادشاهي bādšāhi, باچاهي bāčāhi, باچايي bāčāyi
- monarchy in Tagalog
- monarkiya
- monarchy in Arabic
- مَلِكِيَّة malikiyya
- monarchy in Malay
- monarki
- monarchy in Indonesian
- monarki
- monarchy in Thai
- ราชาธิปไตย raa-chaa-tí-bpà-dtai
- monarchy in Vietnamese
- quân chủ, chế độ quân chủ, nền quân chủ
- monarchy in Myanmar
- မင်း၏အစိုးရခြင်း mang:ea.cui:ra.hkrang:, ဘုရင်စနစ် bhu.rangca.nac
- Kashmiri
- پادشاہَتھ pādśāhath
Examples of monarchy in a sentence
- The United States is a republic; Norway is a constitutional monarchy.
- Monarchies where partition isn't prohibited risk weakening through parcellation and civil wars between the heirs.
- Despite being a constitutional monarchy, the British sovereign still retain many royal prerogatives.
Synonyms of monarchy
Forms of monarchy
| plural | monarchies |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | monarchie |
Origin of monarchy
From Old French monarchie, from Late Latin monarchia, from Ancient Greek μοναρχία (monarkhía), from μόνος (mónos, “only”) + ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “power, authority”). By surface analysis, mon- (“one, single”) + -archy (“rule, command”).
Words formed from monarchy
Phrases with monarchy
Questions about monarchy
- What does monarchy mean?
- Monarchy means a government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).
- What is monarchy in Hindi?
- Monarchy in Hindi is राजतंत्र (rājtantra), बादशाहत (bādśāhat). See Monarchy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is monarchy?
- Monarchy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce monarchy?
- Monarchy is pronounced /ˈmɒnəki/ (UK).
- What is the plural of monarchy?
- The plural of monarchy is monarchies.
Words near monarchy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: monarchy (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-monarchy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “monarchy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/monarchy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.