Other forms: empresses
An empress is a woman who rules an empire. The empress ruled, empress of Russia, the dowager empress.
The title can mean two different things — a woman ruling in her own right, or the wife of an emperor — and history rarely makes clear which is meant. Wu Zetian of China and Catherine the Great ruled in their own right. Note the -ess ending, now avoided in most job titles.
1nounempressA woman who rules an empire.
“Catherine the Great was empress of Russia for more than thirty years.”
empress is a ruler.
Old French empereriz comes from Latin imperatrix, the feminine of imperator, a commander.
Latin
imperatrix
Old French
empereriz
Middle English
emperice
English, today
empress
From Middle English emperice, emperesse, from Anglo-Norman - and Old French empereriz, from Latin imperatrix, equivalent to emperor + ess. a doublet of imperatrix. Compare modern French impératrice.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA