imperiously
Americanadverb
-
in a domineering or haughty manner.
She held out her hand imperiously, but the messenger did not immediately hand over the letter.
-
in an imperative way; urgently.
The need to be accepted can be felt as imperiously as the needs for food, clothing, and shelter.
Other Word Forms
- nonimperiously adverb
- unimperiously adverb
Etymology
Origin of imperiously
Explanation
Use the adverb imperiously to describe a manner that is domineering and authoritative. Shouting, "Sit! Stay!" imperiously might work well on the dog, but it won't necessarily work on your friends. Imperiously comes from the Latin word imperare, which means "to command." Other words from this same root include empire, emperor, imperial, and imperative. Like imperiously, all of these words retain some sense of command in their definitions. When you were three, you might have imperiously announced to your toys that they must come to life immediately, or you would banish them to the dark wasteland known as the closet.
Vocabulary lists containing imperiously
Of Mice and Men
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Great Expectations
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the car came to a standstill at a junction, I spotted one of the giant black birds that seemed to have followed me around Panama, perched imperiously on the side of the road.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026
For most of the play, Jabe is heard rather than seen, making his presence felt by imperiously knocking on the floor of the couple’s quarters, which are above the store.
From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2023
Ralph’s photo of a fox squirrel peering imperiously down from a tree is the winner of my 2023 Squirrel Week Squirrel Photography Contest.
From Washington Post • Apr. 12, 2023
At the recent WGC Match Play he drove the ball imperiously and has been putting well in his practice rounds this week at Augusta - key ingredients to be successful in the Masters.
From BBC • Apr. 5, 2023
So Turner sat at a small desk by the window—a window closed tightly and imperiously against sea breezes exiled by fate—and began the first hundred lines of the Aeneid.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
