1
: the wife or widow of an emperor
2
: a woman who is the sovereign or supreme monarch of an empire
Examples of empress in a Sentence
the Emperor and Empress of Japan
Catherine the Great was Empress of Russia.
Recent Examples on the Web
In 2022, Austrian director Marie Kreutzer released Corsage, the excellent feminist re-reading of the life of 19th century Empress Elizabeth, known as Sissi, with Vicki Krieps as the eccentric, anorexic empress and Florian Teichtmeister as her philandering husband, Franz Joseph I.
—
Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 15 May 2026
Contemporary art work, frescoes and artifacts discovered during the property’s restoration, including a marble head of the Roman empress Livia Drusilla, are also on display.
—Catherine Garcia, TheWeek, 8 Apr. 2026
She is especially recognized for her starring role as the Russian empress Catherine II in the Hulu show The Great (2020–23), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for best actress in a comedy series.
—Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2026
The group of four robbers was able to bypass security systems and used power tools to break into the Louvre to steal invaluable jewels once worn by France’s queens and empresses, officials told NBC News after the robbery.
—Babak Dehghanpisheh, NBC news, 24 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for empress
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Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 15 May 2026
Contemporary art work, frescoes and artifacts discovered during the property’s restoration, including a marble head of the Roman empress Livia Drusilla, are also on display.
—Catherine Garcia, TheWeek, 8 Apr. 2026
She is especially recognized for her starring role as the Russian empress Catherine II in the Hulu show The Great (2020–23), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for best actress in a comedy series.
—Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2026
The group of four robbers was able to bypass security systems and used power tools to break into the Louvre to steal invaluable jewels once worn by France’s queens and empresses, officials told NBC News after the robbery.
—Babak Dehghanpisheh, NBC news, 24 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for empress
Cite this Entry
“Empress.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empress. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
empress
noun
em·press
ˈem-prəs 
1
: the wife or widow of an emperor
2
: a woman who is the ruler of an empire
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