empress

From Middle English emperice, emperesse, from Anglo-Norman and Old French empereriz, from Latin imperatrix, equivalent to emperor +‎ -ess. Doublet of imperatrix. Compare modern French impératrice.

• emperess, empresse (obsolete)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛmpɹəs/

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empress (plural empresses)

1. The female monarch (ruler) of an empire.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Sit downe by her: adorned with my Crowne,
     As if thou wert the Empreſſe of the world.

2. The wife or widow of an emperor or equated ruler.
   • 2008, Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation‎^[1], page 211:

     Empress, imperial regent, and even emperor herself (r. 797–802), Irene was an important and powerful figure at the Byzantine court in the late eighth and early ninth century.

3. (tarot) The third trump or major arcana card of most tarot decks.
4. (rare) A female chimpanzee.
5. A deciduous tree, Paulownia tomentosa

From Middle English empresse, from Anglo-Norman enpresser (“to press, to imprint”), from Old French empresser. Attested from the 15th or late 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

empress (third-person singular simple present empresses, present participle empressing, simple past and past participle empressed)

1. Rare form of impress.