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Arealm is a community or territory over which asovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe amonarchical ordynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within anempire,[1] if it has its own monarch, e.g. theGerman Empire.
The Old French wordreaume, modern Frenchroyaume, was the word first adopted in English; the fixed modern spelling does not appear until the beginning of the 17th century. The word supposedly derives from medievalLatinregalimen, fromregalis, of or belonging to arex'king'.[2] The wordrex itself is derived from the Latin verbregere, which means'to rule'. Thus the literal meaning of the wordrealm is'the territory of a ruler', traditionally a monarch (emperor, king, grand duke, prince, etc.).
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"Realm" is particularly used for those states whose name includes the wordkingdom (for example, theUnited Kingdom), aselegant variation, to avoid clumsy repetition of the word in a sentence (for example, "The King's realm, the United Kingdom..."). It is also useful to describe those countries whose monarchs are called something other than "king" or "queen"; for example, theGrand Duchy ofLuxembourg is a realm but not akingdom, since its monarch holds the title Grand Duke rather than King.
The term may commonly be used to describe any of the "Commonwealth realms", which are kingdoms in their own right and share the same person as monarch, though they are fully independent of each other.
More broadly, a "realm" may encompass territories that are subject to a monarch, yet are not a physical part of his or her "kingdom"; for example, theCook Islands andNiue are considered parts of theRealm of New Zealand, although they are not part of New Zealand proper.
Realm may also be usedmetaphorically to refer to an area of knowledge, expertise or habitat within which an individual ordenizen is pre-eminent or dominant, e.g., "Shakespeare's realm was English drama," or "A lion's realm is the jungle".
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Realm".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 941.