Louis XIV

American  

noun

1. the Greatthe Sun King, 1638–1715, king of France 1643–1715 (son of Louis XIII).

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Louis XIV British  

noun

1. known as le roi soleil (the Sun King). 1638–1715, king of France (1643–1715); son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Effective ruler from 1661, he established an absolute monarchy. His attempt to establish French supremacy in Europe, waging almost continual wars from 1667 to 1714, ultimately failed. But his reign is regarded as a golden age of French literature and art

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Louis XIV Cultural  

1. A king of France in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Louis was known as the Sun King for his power and splendor. By inviting French nobles to live in luxury at his palace at Versailles, he removed them as threats and greatly increased his own power. He is known for saying, “L'état, c'est moi” (“I am the state”).

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Example Sentences

The Louvre, the seat of French kings until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s, now receives around nine million visitors a year.

From Barron's • May 18, 2026

Maria Carolina – whose title carries no legal standing in the Italian Republic - is a distant descendant of France's Sun-King Louis XIV.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

France’s Louis XIV was known as the sun king, his throne the center of a political universe.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025

Saint-Simon knew that when kings embrace their own flattery, they open themselves to manipulation, and the writer viewed Louis XIV as an illusory absolutist who was in fact controlled by fawning scoundrels.

From Slate • May 30, 2025

But Louis XIV persuaded England to switch sides, offering large financial incentives and a promise of territory on mainland Europe once The Netherlands had been conquered.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin