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A political state, often a monarchy, that has achieved a much greater current size than its initial size by conquering surrounding territories, cities or nations.
the Russian empire
2022 February 7, Charles Hugh Smith, How Empires Die:
States and empires fail when they are no longer the solution, they are the problem.
The Empire of Vietnam was a short-lived client state of Japan governing Vietnam between March 11 and August 23, 1945.
The group of states or other territories that owe allegiance to an imperial power (foreign to them), when distinguished from the native territory of that power; imperial possessions.
2001 August 2, P. J. Marshall, The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 105:
British people [...] continued to believe in empire. It was what gave Britain a unique role in the world, and in return Britain had drawn strength from its empire to enable it to survive two great wars that had wrecked so many of its competitors. Imperial management in the twentieth[…]
2021 April 13, Daniel Verdier, Democracy and International Trade: Britain, France, and the United States, 1860-1990, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 139:
Since Britain imported mainly foodstuffs from its empire, no preferences could be granted to the colonies without Britain first imposing a tariff on foodstuffs imported from other countries.
An expansive and powerful enterprise under the control of one person or group.
the McDonald's fast food empire
2002, Evelyn L. Damore, The Rattle and Hiss of the Tin Gods, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 111:
“Revenues for Jackson's non-profit empire sky-rocketed from $4 million in 1997, to more than $14 million just two years later.”
2009, Martin Short, The Rise of the Mafia, Kings Road Publishing, →ISBN:
The Mafia never forgave Castro but Lansky had already laid the foundations of a mob gambling empire all over the Caribbean […]
1881, François Guizot, The History of Civilization from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution..., page 122:
The brutality, the unthinking, the unreflecting character of the barbarians were so great, that the new faith, the new feelings with which they had been inspired, exercised but a very slight empire over them.
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“empire”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
[⁊ of iheſu criſt] þat is a feiþful witneſſe .· þe firſte bigeten of deed men · ⁊ pꝛynce of kyngis of þe erþe / which louyde vs / ⁊ waiſchide vs fro oure ſynnes in his blood .· / ⁊ made vs a kyngdom / ⁊ pꝛeſtis to god ⁊ to his fadir / to hym be gloꝛie ⁊ empire .· in to woꝛldis of woꝛldis
/ who is a reliable witness, the firstborn of the dead, and sovereign over the rulers of the Earth, who loved us, cleansed us from our sins with his blood, / and made us a kingdom / and priests of God and his father. To him are glory and power for many ages.
From Latinimperium, inperium(“command, control, dominion, sovereignty, a dominion, empire”), from imperare, inperare(“to command, order”), from in(“in, on”) + parare(“to make ready, order”).