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.

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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

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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.

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Etymology

Origin of British Empire

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

Ancient, patriarchal and oracular, Tennyson was not merely the poet laureate of England; he was, like his queen, a symbol of the British Empire.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

The stolen items were from the collection of the former British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, which was donated to the Bristol Museum after its liquidation in 2013.

From BBC • Jan. 29, 2026

In 2004, she was made a Dame of the British Empire.

From BBC • Dec. 31, 2025

Old Filth himself is a retired judge looking back on life, with recollections of the British Empire in better days.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

All these things—the flags, the pitch pipe songs, the British Empire and the princesses, the war orphans, even the strappings —are superimposed against the ominous navy-blue background of Miss Lumley’s invisible bloomers.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood