Meaning & use
imperium
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The supreme power to give orders and enforce them, held by a ruler or high official, especially in ancient Rome.
Grammar: Rarely takes an or an: the imperium of the consul.
Patterns
- the imperium of someone
- hold imperium
- imperium over something
A Roman consul held imperium, which gave him command of the army.
The senate granted him imperium for a year.
Historians debate how far the emperor's imperium reached into daily life.
nouncountableliterary
An empire, or a wide area ruled by one power.
Grammar: Used in history and fiction; plural is imperia.
Patterns
- the imperium of something
The writer described the imperium as stretching from sea to sea.
Fans of the game build an imperium across the galaxy.
The medieval imperium fell apart after its ruler died.
Word forms
| plural | imperia |
|---|
Common combinations
- imperium of Rome
- The imperium of Rome grew through conquest and law.
- hold imperium
- Only magistrates could hold imperium.
- maius imperium
- Augustus used a form of maius imperium to rule the provinces.
- imperium sine fine
- Virgil promised the Romans imperium sine fine, empire without end.
- imperium in imperio
- The church became an imperium in imperio, a state within a state.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dominion
- Dominion is broader and can mean ordinary control or the territory ruled, while imperium specifically means the legal power to command.
- empire
- Empire is the everyday word for a large state under one ruler, whereas imperium is mostly historical or poetic.
- sovereignty
- Sovereignty means ultimate authority in law, and it applies to modern states more than imperium does.
- command
- Command is a general word for authority over others, whereas imperium refers to a formal grant of power.
Opposites
Word family
- imperial adjective
- relating to an empire or emperor
- imperialism noun
- a policy of extending a country's power over other lands
- emperor noun
- the ruler of an empire
- imperative adjective
- absolutely necessary; it shares the Latin root meaning to command
- empire noun
- a group of lands ruled by one power
Commonly confused: imperium or imperium/emporium? imperium or imperious?
imperium vs imperium/emporium
An emporium is a large store or market, whereas an imperium is supreme power or an empire.
imperium vs imperious
Imperious describes someone arrogantly bossy, while imperium is a noun for ruling power.
Practice
A historian says that a Roman consul 'held imperium'. What does this mean?
Choose one answer.
Imperium was the power of command granted to magistrates. The other options confuse it with residence, with the similar word emporium, or with lawmaking.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “imperium”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.