Other forms: kingdoms
A kingdom is a country ruled by a king or a queen. The kingdom fell, a united kingdom, kingdom come.
In biology a kingdom is one of the great divisions of life — animals, plants, fungi — and the number has changed as the science has. Kingdom come means the next world, from the Lord's Prayer. Note the -dom ending, which makes a domain or a state, as in freedom.
1nounkingdomA country ruled by a king or a queen.
“The old king divided his kingdom between his three daughters.”
2noungreatOne of the great divisions of living things.
“Mushrooms are not plants; scientists place them in a kingdom of their own, the fungi.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
kingdom is a realm, or a division.
Old English cyningdom is king plus -dom, an ending meaning domain or state. Freedom and wisdom use the same ending.
Proto-Germanic
*kuningadōmaz
Old English
cyningdōm
Middle English
kingdom
English, today
kingdom
From Middle English kingdom, kyngdom, from Old English cyningdōm from Proto-Germanic kuningadōmaz, equivalent to king + -dom. Cognate with Scots kingdom, West Frisian keuningdom, Dutch koningdom, German Königtum, Danish kongedømme, Swedish kungadöme, and Icelandic konungdómur. From Middle English kingdom.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA