Imperialist

How to spell imperialist

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce imperialist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does imperialist mean?

1. nounA person who supports or advocates the policy of extending a country's power through colonisation or domination of other nations.
2. adjectiveRelating to or characteristic of imperialism, the policy of one nation dominating others.

Imperialist in a sentence

• noun

  The historian described the minister as a committed imperialist who defended the colonial system.

• adjective

  The essay condemned the imperialist ambitions that drove the invasion.

• noun

  Critics labelled the imperialist as indifferent to the rights of the occupied territories.

• adjective

  Trade routes were shaped by the imperialist goals of the period.

Where does imperialist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin imperium, which meant 'command', 'authority', or the right to rule, and by extension came to mean an empire itself; imperium grew from the verb imperare, 'to command' or 'to give orders'. From imperium Latin formed imperialis, 'belonging to an emperor or empire', which passed through Old French into English as 'imperial' in the late 1300s. The suffix -ist, drawn ultimately from Greek by way of Latin and French, was attached to mark a person who holds a doctrine or follows a practice, giving 'imperialist' in the early 1800s as political debate about empires intensified. The same imperium root still echoes in 'emperor', 'empire', and 'imperative', all of which share the underlying notion of authoritative command. For the speller, the trap is the unstressed middle: it is imper-i-al, with that quiet -ial cluster, plus the -ist ending rather than a sneaky -alist of -alyst kind.

How the word is built

• imperi- (from Latin imperium: command, dominion, empire)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ist (one who supports or practises)