Anemperor (female equivalent:empress) is amale who rules anempire. The word is taken from theLatin languageImperator. Often it iscapitalized.
A woman who comes to power in an empire is called an empress. The wife of an emperor is also called an empress. An emperor or empress is often ahereditary monarch and comes to power when one of his parents, orrelatives,dies. In some countries, people elected a new emperor fromcandidates.
The only emperor in the world today is theEmperor of Japan (tennō), but he lacks political power. The true leaders of Japan are theDiet andPrime Minister because the country is aparliamentaryconstitutional monarchy.
TheEnglish word comes fromLatin, the language of the oldRoman Empire. At first, animperator was a powerfulgeneral (army leader) but, afterAugustus, it was only used by theirmost powerful rulers. There have been manycountries inhistory whose leaders are called "emperors" in English. The leaders of theByzantine Empire (basileus,Autokrator) inGreece, theHoly Roman Empire (imperator,Kaiser) inAustria andGermany,Russian Empire,Serbia , andBulgaria (tsar), and theOttoman Empire (sultan,padishah,khagan,kaysar) inTurkey all said they were just new parts of the oldRoman Empire.
The leaders of other countries who said they ruled thewhole world or called themselves "King ofKings" are frequently also called emperors inEnglish. For example, the old rulers ofChina (Huangdi),Iran (Shah), andEthiopia (Negusa negast) are all known as emperors inEnglish. There have also been emperors ofFrance,Brazil , andMexico, and the rulers of theUnited Kingdom called themselves theEmperors and empresses of India for a while.
- China (221 BC – 1911, 1915–1916)
- Ethiopia (1137– 1975)
- Japan (The only empire that currently exists)
- Ottoman Empire (Türkiye, Anatolia, Balkans, Caucasus, Aegean and Mediterranean, Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, North Africa) 1299-1923
- Roman Empire (27 BC – 476)
- Russian Empire (1721–1917)
- Empire of Vietnam (1802–1945)
- French Empire (1804–1814, 1815, 1852–1870)
- Haitian Empire (1804–1806, 1849–1859)
- Austrian Empire (1804–1867)
- Brazilian Empire (1822–1889)
- German Empire (1871–1918)
- Mexican Empire (1821–1823, 1864–1867)
- Indian Empire (1858–1947)
- Korean Empire (1897–1910)
- Empire of Manchukuo (1934–1945)
- Central African Empire (1976–1979)
- Inca Empire (1438–1533)
