Meaning & use
monarchy
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A form of government in which one person, usually a king or queen who inherits the position, is the official head of the state.
Grammar: Countable for a particular state (a monarchy), uncountable for the system in general: support for monarchy.
Patterns
- the monarchy of somewhere
- a monarchy under someone
Norway has been a monarchy for more than a century.
Her essay compared monarchy with republican rule in early modern Europe.
In a constitutional monarchy, elected politicians make the daily decisions.
nounsingular
The royal family and the institution built around it, as a part of a country's public life.
Grammar: Usually takes 'the' and a singular verb: the monarchy has changed.
Patterns
- abolish the monarchy
- support the monarchy
Public opinion about the monarchy shifted after the scandal.
The monarchy opens its gardens to visitors every summer.
Some citizens want the monarchy to cost the taxpayer less.
Word forms
| plural | monarchies |
|---|
Common combinations
- constitutional monarchy
- Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a largely ceremonial emperor.
- absolute monarchy
- Under an absolute monarchy, the king's word was law.
- abolish the monarchy
- The revolutionaries voted to abolish the monarchy within a year.
- restore the monarchy
- After the war, a small party campaigned to restore the monarchy.
- hereditary monarchy
- A hereditary monarchy passes the crown from parent to child.
Synonyms and how they differ
- kingdom
- A kingdom is the territory a king or queen rules, while a monarchy is the system of government itself.
- sovereignty
- Sovereignty is supreme authority of any kind, whereas monarchy specifically places that authority in one royal person.
- crown
- The crown is a symbol that can stand for the monarchy, but it is more figurative and less technical.
Opposites
Word family
- monarch noun
- the king, queen or emperor who heads a monarchy
- monarchist noun
- a person who supports monarchy
- monarchical adjective
- relating to or ruled by a monarch
- monarchic adjective
- a less common variant of monarchical
Commonly confused: monarchy or oligarchy?
monarchy vs oligarchy
An oligarchy is rule by a small group of powerful people, not by one ruler.
Practice
Which phrase describes a country where a queen is head of state but elected lawmakers hold real power?
Choose one answer.
A constitutional monarchy keeps a royal head of state while limiting that role by law; an absolute monarchy would give the queen unchecked power.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “monarchy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.