Napoleon Bonaparte

Cultural  

1. A French general, political leader, and emperor of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Bonaparte rose swiftly through the ranks of army and government during and after the French Revolution and crowned himself emperor in 1804. He conquered much of Europe but lost two-thirds of his army in a disastrous invasion of Russia. After his final loss to Britain and Prussia at the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean.

---

Discover More

Because Napoleon was short, overly aggressive men of short stature are sometimes said to have a “Napoleon complex.”

Napoleon's name is often connected with overreaching military ambition and delusions of grandeur.

Example Sentences

In 1800, he was commissioned to create a portrait of the young Corsican general Napoleon Bonaparte.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025

This historic fortress is where Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in 1799.

From BBC • Dec. 4, 2025

A brooch seized from Napoleon Bonaparte as he fled the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, laden with old mine-cut diamonds has been valued at $150,000 to $250,000.

From Barron's • Nov. 11, 2025

That’s probably how Napoleon Bonaparte felt, three-quarters of the way through the battle of Waterloo.

From Salon • Sep. 14, 2025

Traditional histories like to equate Beethoven, the colossus of music in the early 1800s, with his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, revolutionary-turned-Emperor and serial military adventurer.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall