empire
• noun 1 an extensive group of states ruled over by a single monarch or ruling authority. 2 supreme political power. 3 a large commercial organization under the control of one person or group. • adjective (Empire) denoting a neoclassical style of furniture and dress fashionable chiefly during the First Empire (1804-15) in France. — ORIGIN Latin imperium, from imperare ‘to command’.
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