emperor

See also: Emperor

English

Alternative forms

• emperour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English emperour, from Anglo-Norman emperour, from Latin imperātorem, derived from imperāre (“to command”). Doublet of imperator.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpəɹə/, /ˈɛmpɹə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpəɹɚ/, /ˈɛmpɹɚ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈempɘɹɘ/, /ˈempɹɘ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

emperor (plural emperors)

Emperor Norton I, self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of The United Mexican States.

1. 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.

   • 1885, John Ormsby, transl., Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Volume 2 Chapter XXIV:

     They asked Julius Caesar, the valiant Roman emperor, what was the best death. He answered, that which is unexpected, which comes suddenly and unforeseen

2. Any monarch ruling an empire, irrespective of gender, with "empress" contrasting to mean the consort of an emperor.
   • 1994, Het Spinhuis, Transactions: Essays in Honor of Jeremy F. Boissevain‎^[1]:

     In 690 Wu usurped the throne and became Emperor herself, which proved a unique event in the history of China.

   • 2002, The Heritage of World Civilizations: To 1700‎^[2], page 226:

     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.

   • 2008, Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation‎^[3], page 211:

     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.

   • 2013, Voyages in World History‎^[4], page 213:

     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.

   • 2016, Commander Pakydus, Sindbad & the 7 Galaxies:

     Where is Sindbad? I have a summons for him direct from the galactic emperor herself. He is to be brought here immediately to give an explanation for his recent actions.

3. (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.

4. (tarot) The fourth trump or major arcana card of the tarot deck.
5. A large, relatively valuable marble in children's games.
   • 2001, Paul Webley, The economic psychology of everyday life, page 39:

     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 […]

6. Any fish of the family Lethrinidae.
7. (entomology) Any of various butterflies of the subfamily Charaxinae.
8. (entomology) Any of various large dragonflies of the cosmopolitan genus Anax.
9. An emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri).
   • 2008, Gloria Clifford, Emperor Penguins: The Lords of Antarctica:

     We do not know if the emperors are monogamous. I know some of the penguins species mate for life.

   • 2012, Lloyd S. Davis, John T. Darby, Penguin Biology, page 273:

     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.

   • 2019, Lindsay McCrae, My Penguin Year: Living with the Emperors:

     If they were emperors, I wanted a better view. Being told they were emperors was no good; I needed to see them. But as quickly as we had spotted them, they spotted us. Sliding on their bellies, two emperors began to rush over.

Usage notes

• The only monarch presently styled "emperor" is the Emperor of Japan (in Japanese: 天皇, tennō). The British monarch ceased to be styled Emperor of India in 1948.
• An emperor is generally addressed as His Imperial Majesty.

Hyponyms

• barracks emperor
• basileus
• mikado
• tenno

Derived terms

• antiemperor
• Australian emperor
• Chimperor
• coemperor
• emperor butterfly
• emperor fairywren
• emperor goose (Anser canagicus)
• emperorism
• emperorist
• emperorlike
• emperor moth (Saturniinae)
• emperor paper
• emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)
• emperor rat
• emperorship
• emperor tamarin
• God Emperor
• little emperor
• little emperor syndrome
• pale-spotted emperor
• purple emperor
• Trumperor

 

Related terms

• empire
• empress
• imperial
• imperialism
• imperially

 

Translations

ruler of an empire

• Albanian: perandor (sq) m
• Arabic: قَيْصَر m (qayṣar), إِمْبْرَاطُور m (ʔimbrāṭūr)

  Hijazi Arabic: إِمْبْراطور m (ʔimbrāṭōr)

• Armenian: կայսր (hy) (kaysr)

  Old Armenian: կայսր (kaysr), կեսար (kesar)

• Aromanian: ampirat m
• Asturian: emperador (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: imperator, padşah
• Basque: enperadorea
• Belarusian: імпера́тар m (impjerátar), цар m (car) (tsar)
• Bengali: সম্রাট (bn) (śomraṭ)
• Breton: impalaer (br)
• Bulgarian: импера́тор (bg) m (imperátor)
• Burmese: ဧကရာဇ် (my) (eka.raj)
• Catalan: emperador (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 皇帝 (wong⁴ dai³)

  Dungan: хуонди (huondi), хуоншон (huonšon)

  Mandarin: 皇帝 (zh) (huángdì), 帝王 (zh) (dìwáng), 皇上 (zh) (huángshang), 天皇 (zh) (tiānhuáng) (emperor of Japan)

• Coptic: ⲁⲩⲧⲟⲕⲣⲁⲧⲱⲣ m (autokratōr)
• Czech: císař (cs) m
• Danish: kejser (da) c
• Dutch: keizer (nl) m
• Dzongkha: རྒྱལ་ཆེན (rgyal chen)
• Esperanto: imperiestro
• Estonian: keiser (et), imperaator
• Extremaduran: emperaol m
• Finnish: keisari (fi)
• French: empereur (fr) m
• Friulian: imperadôr m
• Galician: emperador (gl) m
• Georgian: იმპერატორი (imṗeraṭori)
• German: Kaiser (de) m, Imperator (de) m
• Greek: αυτοκράτορας (el) m (aftokrátoras)

  Ancient: αὐτοκράτωρ m (autokrátōr), καῖσαρ m (kaîsar), αὐτάναξ m (autánax)

• Hebrew: קיסר \ קֵיסָר (he) m (kesár, keysár)
• Hindi: सम्राट m (samrāṭ), महाराजा m (mahārājā), चक्रवर्ती (hi) m (cakravartī)
• Hungarian: császár (hu)
• Icelandic: keisari (is) m
• Ido: cezaro (io), imperiestro (io)
• Indonesian: kaisar (id), maharaja (id)
• Interlingua: imperator
• Irish: impire m
• Italian: imperatore (it) m
• Japanese: 皇帝 (ja) (こうてい, kōtei) (emperor in general), 帝王 (ja) (ていおう, teiō) (general term for emperor or monarch), 天皇 (ja) (てんのう, tennō) (emperor of Japan), 帝 (ja) (みかど, mikado)
• Kazakh: император (imperator), патша (patşa)
• Khmer: អធិរាជ (km) (ʼaʼthiriəc), រាជាធិរាជ (riəciəthiriəc), សម្រាជ (km) (sɑmraac)
• Korean: 황제(皇帝) (ko) (hwangje), 천황(天皇) (ko) (cheonhwang) (emperor of Japan), 제왕(帝王) (ko) (jewang)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: emperator (ku), qeyser (ku)

• Kyrgyz: император (ky) (imperator), падыша (ky) (padışa)
• Lao: ຈັກກະພັດ (chak ka phat), ຈັກກະວັດ (chak ka wat), ນໍຣິນ (nǭ rin), ນໍລິນ (nǭ lin), ຣາເຊນ (rā sēn)
• Latin: imperātor (la) m, autocratōr m (Late Latin), basileus m (medieval)
• Latvian: imperators m, ķeizars m
• Ligurian: imperatô m
• Lithuanian: imperatorius m, ciesorius m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Kaiser

• Luxembourgish: Keeser m
• Macedonian: импера́тор m (imperátor), цар m (car) (tsar)
• Malay: kaisar, maharaja, khakan
• Malayalam: സാമ്രാട്ട് (sāmrāṭṭŭ), ചക്രവർത്തി (ml) (cakravaṟtti)
• Maltese: imperatur m
• Manchu: ᡥᡡᠸᠠᠩᡩᡳ (hūwangdi), ᡥᠠᠨ (han)
• Mandinka: mansa
• Manx: ard-ree m
• Maori: emepara, epara
• Marathi: सम्राट m (samrāṭ)
• Middle English: emperour, kayser
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: эзэн хаан (ezen xaan)

• Norman: empéreu m (Jersey)
• North Frisian: keiser
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: keiser (no) m

  Nynorsk: keisar m

• Occitan: emperador (oc) m

  Old Occitan: emperador

• Old Czech: ciesař m
• Old English: cāsere m
• Pashto: امپراتور (ps) m (amparātur), کيسر m (kaysar), قيصر (ps) m (qaysar)
• Persian: اِمْپِراطور (fa) (emperâtur), اِمْپِراتور (fa) (emperâtur), قِیْصَر (fa) (qeysar), پادِشاه (fa) (pâdešâh), پادْشاه (fa) (pâdšâh)
• Polish: imperator (pl) m, cesarz (pl) m, car (pl) m, kajzer m, carz (pl) m
• Portuguese: imperador (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਮਰਾਟ (pa) (samrāṭ)
• Quechua: qhapaq
• Romanian: împărat (ro) m
• Romansch: imperatur m, imperataur m, imperatour m, caiser m
• Russian: импера́тор (ru) m (imperátor), царь (ru) m (carʹ) (tsar)
• Sanskrit: अधिराज (sa) m (adhirāja), सम्राज् (sa) m (samrāj), राजाधिराज (sa) m (rājādhirāja)
• Saterland Frisian: Kaiser
• Scottish Gaelic: ìmpire m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ца̏р m, импѐра̄тор m, це̏са̄р m

  Latin: cȁr (sh) m, impèrātor (sh) m, cȅsār (sh) m

• Sicilian: mpiraturi
• Silesian: cysŏrz
• Slovak: cisár (sk) m, cár (sk) m (of Russia, Bulgaria)
• Slovene: cêsar (sl) m, imperátor m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kejžor m

  Upper Sorbian: kejžor m

• Spanish: emperador (es) m
• Swahili: kaisari
• Swedish: kejsare (sv) c
• Tagalog: emperador (tl)
• Tajik: император (imperator), қайсар (qaysar), подшоҳ (podšoh), подишоҳ (podišoh)
• Tatar: патша (tt) (patşa)
• Telugu: చక్రవర్తి (te) (cakravarti)
• Thai: จักรพรรดิ (th) (jàk-grà-pát), ฮ่องเต้ (th) (hɔ̂ng-dtêe) (emperor of China)
• Turkish: imparator (tr), ilhan (tr)
• Turkmen: imperator, patyşa
• Ukrainian: імпера́тор m (imperátor), цар (uk) m (car) (tsar)
• Urdu: شَہنْشاہ m (śahanśāh), سَمْراٹ m (samrāṭ), قَیصَر m (qaisar)
• Uyghur: ئىمپېراتور (impërator), پادىشا (padisha)
• Uzbek: imperator (uz), qaysar (uz), podsho (uz)
• Venetan: inperadore m, inperador m
• Vietnamese: hoàng đế (vi), thiên hoàng (of Japan)
• Vilamovian: kazer m
• Walloon: impreur (wa) m
• Welsh: ymerawdwr m
• West Frisian: keizer c
• Yiddish: קייסער m (keyser), אימפּעראַטאָר m (imperator)

fourth trump or major arcana card

Anagrams

• per orem

Franco-Provençal

Alternative forms

emperaor (Old Dauphinois) emperœr (ORB, narrow) empereur (Valdôtain) emperator (ORB, broad) (< Italian imperatore) amperatoû (Piemontais)

Etymology

From Latin imperātōrem.

Noun

emperor m (plural emperors) (ORB, broad)

1. emperor

References

• emperor in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

Further information

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “ĭmpĕrator”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 4: G H I, page 585