- the wife or widow of an emperor
- a woman who holds the rank of emperor in her own right
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
em•press /ˈɛmprɪs/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- World Historya female ruler of an empire.
- World Historythe wife of an emperor.
em•press
(em′pris),USA pronunciation n.
- World Historya female ruler of an empire.
- World Historythe consort of an emperor.
- Latin imperātrīcem, accusative of imperātrix, feminine of imperātor. See emperor, -trix
- Anglo-French; Old French emperesse, empereriz
- Middle English emperice, emperesse 1125–75
- See -ess.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
empress /ˈɛmprɪs/ n
'empress' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Beauharnais
- Carlota
- Catherine I
- Elizabeth
- Eugénie
- Helena
- imperial
- Marie Louise
- Matilda
- Potemkin
- RI
- Smith
- Theodora
- tsarina
- Victoria
- von Sternberg
- Wu Hou
- Zi Xi
- Alexandra Feodorovna
- Anna Ivanovna
- Catherine II
- czarina
- dowager
- EMP
- empire
- empress tree
- ess
- imp
- Josephine
- Octavia
- pekoe
- princess tree
- R. and I.
- Tz'u Hsi
- sovereign