emperor

/ˈɛmpərər/

/ˈɛmpərə/

Other forms: emperors

Forget prime ministers, presidents or even kings or queens: an emperor was the biggest, baddest ruler of them all — the leader of undisputed power who controlled a nation or, more usually, a number of subjugated nations known collectively as an empire.

Nowadays the emperor is no more, replaced by humbler and usually more democratic leaders, but the notion of an all-conquering larger-than-life figure lives on in the way we give the prefix emperor to particularly magnificent specimens of living things: the Emperor Butterfly, Emperor Moth and Emperor Penguin, most famously. The Roman emperors would be proud.

Definitions of emperor

1. noun

   the male ruler of an empire
   examples:

   Francis Joseph I

   emperor of Austria and king of Hungary; was defeated by Napoleon III at the battle of Magenta (1830-1916)

   Genghis Khan

   Mongolian emperor whose empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean (1162-1227)

   Ras Tafari Makonnen

   emperor of Ethiopia; worshipped by Rastafarians (1892-1975)

   Michinomiya Hirohito

   emperor of Japan who renounced his divinity and became a constitutional monarch after Japan surrendered at the end of World War II (1901-1989)

   Justinian the Great

   Byzantine emperor who held the eastern frontier of his empire against the Persians; codified Roman law in 529; his general Belisarius regained North Africa and Spain (483-565)

   Kublai Kaan

   Mongolian emperor of China and grandson of Genghis Khan who completed his grandfather's conquest of China; he establish the Yuan dynasty and built a great capital on the site of modern Beijing where he received Marco Polo (1216-1294)

   Meiji Tenno

   emperor of Japan who encouraged the modernization of Japan (1852-1912)

   Montezuma II

   the last Aztec emperor in Mexico who was overthrown and killed by Hernando Cortes (1466-1520)

   Napoleon Bonaparte

   French general who became emperor of the French (1769-1821)

   Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

   nephew of Napoleon I and emperor of the French from 1852 to 1871 (1808-1873)

   Ch'in Shih Huang Ti

   the first Qin emperor who unified China, built much of the Great Wall, standardized weights and measures, and created a common currency and legal system (died 210 BC)

   Shah Jahan

   Mogul emperor of India during whose reign the finest monuments of Mogul architecture were built (including the Taj Mahal at Agra) (1592-1666)

   types:

   empress

   a woman emperor or the wife of an emperor

   Holy Roman Emperor

   sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire

   Kaiser, kaiser

   the title of the Holy Roman Emperors or the emperors of Austria or of Germany until 1918

   mikado, tenno

   the emperor of Japan; when regarded as a religious leader the emperor is called tenno

   Emperor of Rome, Roman Emperor

   sovereign of the Roman Empire

   Romanoff, Romanov

   a member of the imperial family that ruled Russia

   type of:

   crowned head, monarch, sovereign

   a nation's ruler or head of state usually by hereditary right
2. noun

   large richly colored butterfly
   synonyms: emperor butterfly

   types:

   Apatura iris, purple emperor

   large European butterfly the male of which has wings shaded with purple

   type of:

   brush-footed butterfly, four-footed butterfly, nymphalid, nymphalid butterfly

   medium to large butterflies found worldwide typically having brightly colored wings and much-reduced nonfunctional forelegs carried folded on the breast
3. noun

   large moth of temperate forests of Eurasia having heavily scaled transparent wings
   synonyms: Saturnia pavonia, emperor moth

   type of:

   saturniid, saturniid moth

   large brightly colored and usually tropical moth; larvae spin silken cocoons
4. noun

   red table grape of California
   type of:

   vinifera grape

   grape from a cultivated variety of the common grape vine of Europe