British Empire

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

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

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of British Empire¹

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

The British Empire didn’t want to hold on to its American colonies just for their resources and taxes; they represented its most rapidly growing market.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and was made an honorary Knight of the British Empire.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

As a former police officer and a journalist in the British Empire, Orwell grew up in a reality he used to create his fiction.

Read more on Salon

Full emancipation for enslaved people in the British Empire, excluding some exceptions like the East India Company, was granted by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

Read more on BBC

In 2017, she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire but - unlike Hyacinth - honours did not go to her head.

Read more on BBC