empress
Americannoun
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the wife or widow of an emperor
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a woman who holds the rank of emperor in her own right
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a woman of great power and influence
Gender
See -ess.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of empress
1125–75; Middle English emperice, emperesse < Anglo-French; Old French emperesse, empereriz < Latin imperātrīcem, accusative of imperātrix, feminine of imperātor. See emperor, -trix
Explanation
An empress is either a female emporer or the wife of an emporer. Either way, it's a powerful woman. There are a lot of words that have gender built into them, like fireman and waitress. Another is empress, which is a female emperor. An emperor is like a king: a person with absolute power over a country. An empress is therefore like a queen. Also, just as a queen is the wife of a king, an empress might be the wife of an emperor, meaning she's not the ruler of the country but just married to the ruler.
Vocabulary lists containing empress
Chinese History - Introductory
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Japanese History - Middle School and High School
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
I had done so many things, but people probably knew me most for “Maleficent,” but it was then fun to be in “The Great” and I’m playing an empress, but she’s not the Disney version.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
In a rare interview, his mother, the former empress Farah Pahlavi told AFP from her home in Paris in written answers to questions there was "no turning back" after the wave of protests.
From Barron's ● Jan. 21, 2026
Among the stolen pieces was a large, diamond-encrusted bow brooch that belonged to the same empress.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
A crown of the empress Eugénie was left at the scene and is being examined to see if it is damaged.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
I felt like an empress on the way to school.
From "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata
Recording from his home in Pasadena, he has played men and women of all ages, races, nationalities and abilities, as well as “postapocalyptic people living in trees and empresses of fictitious planets,” he notes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2025
The organisation has close ties with the imperial family, with previous empresses serving as honorary presidents.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2024
I postponed my research on Sims, believing him to be an altruistic outlier who could be a balm in my distressing work: someone who, according to one statue’s inscription, treated “alike empresses and slaves”.
From Nature ● Sep. 17, 2017
As explained earlier, a few empresses wielded great power.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
Are we not nightly persuaded, as they daily are, that we associate preposterously with kings and queens, emperors and empresses, and notabilities of all sorts?
From A Century of English Essays An Anthology Ranging from Caxton to R. L. Stevenson & the Writers of Our Own Time by Rhys, Ernest
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.
