British Empire

American  

noun

1. a former collective term for the territories under the leadership or control of the British crown, including those in the Commonwealth of Nations and their colonies, protectorates, dependencies, and trusteeships.

---

British Empire British  

noun

1. (formerly) the United Kingdom and the territories under its control, which reached its greatest extent at the end of World War I when it embraced over a quarter of the world's population and more than a quarter of the world's land surface

---

British Empire Cultural  

1. The empire of Britain, which began in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the establishment of colonies in North America and ended in the twentieth century as dozens of nations, formerly British possessions, became independent. At the empire's greatest extent, around 1900, it included Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, vast portions of Africa, and many smaller territories throughout the world. The empire ceased to have an “emperor” in the late 1940s, when the British king renounced the title of emperor of India. The empire has been succeeded by the British Commonwealth, which was formed in 1931.

---

Etymology

Origin of British Empire

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

British Empire

Having begun in 1930 as the British Empire Games, the Commonwealth Games face questions about their place and relevance in the modern world.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

In 2022, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, recognizing Tyler’s contributions to music.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Nobody in the colonies liked the Stamp Tax, and protests broke out all around the British Empire, but Ms. Pearsall’s wider lens reveals that “protest did not lead inexorably to revolution.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

The Trump administration is seeking to have his image on a $250 bill to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary since independence from the British Empire.

From Barron's ● May 29, 2026

And Britain had declared a state of war throughout the vast British Empire.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman