emperor

Forms

1.The male monarch or ruler of an empire.
- In imperial China, it was often a responsibility of the emperor to evaluate his predecessor after the latter's death.
2.Specifically, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire; the world-monarch.
- The Investiture Controversy was a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope.
3.The fourth trump or major arcana card of the tarot deck.
4.Any monarch ruling an empire, irrespective of gender, with "empress" contrasting to mean the consort of an emperor.
- In 690 Wu usurped the throne and became Emperor herself, which proved a unique event in the history of China.
- Originally the wife of the emperor, she engineered the imperial succession so that she could serve first as regent to a boy emperor and then as emperor herself.
- After his death in 683 she ruled for seven years as regent and then, deposing her son, became emperor herself, the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title.

Rare· #4959

From Middle English emperour, from Anglo-Norman emperour, from Latin imperātorem, derived from imperō (“to command”).

Doublet of imperator.

Displaced earlier Old English casere, from Latin Caesar.