realm

• realme (obsolete)

From Middle English rewme, realme, reaume, from Old French reaume, realme, reialme (“kingdom”), of unclear origins. A postulated *rēgālimen (“domain, kingdom”), Late Latin or Vulgar Latin cross of regimen with rēgālis is usually cited.

The modern spelling predominates from around 1600. The modern pronunciation with /l/ is either a spelling pronunciation or influenced by the etymology. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

• (UK, US) enPR: rĕlm, IPA^(key): /ɹɛlm/
• (Early Modern) IPA^(key): /rɛːm/, /rɛlm/^[1]

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɛlm

realm (plural realms)

1. (now law and rhetoric) A territory or state, as ruled by an absolute authority, especially by a king; a kingdom. [from ca. 1300]
   • 1874, Horatio Alger, “Chapter XXXI”, in Brave and Bold:

     And, of this island realm, he and his companion were the undisputed sovereigns.

   • 1913, Leslie Alexander Toke, Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Dunstan",

     Then seeing his life was threatened he fled the realm and crossed over to Flanders, […]

   1. (fantasy, roleplaying games) An otherworldly dimension or domain — magical, ethereal, or otherwise — usually ruled or created by a mystical character.
   2. (obsolete) The spiritual state of which God is the head; the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. (also figurative) A sphere of knowledge or of influence; a domain. [from after 1400]

   the realm of physics

   the realm of corporate governance

   • 1907, Tada Kanai, “The World and How to Pass Through It”, in Arthur Lloyd, transl., Seven Buddhist Sermons:

     Why should we despise anything in the realm of Buddha?

   • 1922, Judson Eber Conant, “Truth Must be Classified Scientifically”, in The Church The Schools and Evolution:

     One thing more which the scientific man does is to accord primacy to that realm of truth which is primary in importance.

   • 2006 November 22, Christian Neef, “Diary of a Collapsing Superpower”, in Spiegel Magazine:

     At home in Moscow, Mikhail Sergeyevitch Gorbachev, who had launched a campaign to rejuvenate the Soviet realm  […]

   • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[2], volume 188, number 23, page 19:

     In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.

3. (biology, ecology) A primary zoogeographical division of the earth's surface. [from 1850s]
4. (virology, taxonomy) A taxonomic rank in the phylogeny of viruses, higher than kingdoms.
5. (archaic) A region or zone forming part of a cosmological system. [from 1560s]

• (a territory or state): country, land, kingdom
• (a sphere of activity or influence): field, province

• “realm, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “realm”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “realm”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.; “domain”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Maler, Lamer, meral, Lemar, lamer, Armel, maerl, Almer, maler, marle, Lerma