Imperialism

How to spell imperialism

11 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce imperialism

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imperialism mean?

1. nounA policy or doctrine of extending a country's power and influence over other territories, often through colonisation or military force.

Imperialism in a sentence

• The history lecture examined the economic motives behind nineteenth-century imperialism.

• Critics argued that controlling the region's oil supply was a modern form of imperialism.

Where does imperialism come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin imperium, which literally meant 'command' or 'supreme authority' and came to stand for the territory ruled under that authority, an empire. From imperium Latin formed the adjective imperialis, 'belonging to an emperor or empire', which passed through Old French into English as 'imperial' in the late Middle Ages. The abstract noun was assembled much later, in the nineteenth century, by adding the Greek-derived ending -ism to mark a policy or ideology; it gained wide political currency in Britain during the era of empire-building in the 1800s. The same imperium root also gives English 'emperor', 'empire', and 'imperative', all of them carrying that original flavour of commanding power. For spelling, it helps to see the whole word as imperial plus -ism, so the tricky middle simply reuses the familiar adjective.

How the word is built

• imperial- (from Latin imperium: command, dominion, empire)
• -ism (suffix forming a doctrine, system, or practice)