Monarchy

How to spell monarchy

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce monarchy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monarchy mean?

1. nounA form of government in which a king or queen serves as head of state, often for life and by inheritance.

Monarchy in a sentence

• The country abolished the monarchy and became a republic.

• Under a constitutional monarchy, the head of state has limited legal power.

Where does monarchy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek monarkhia, which described rule by a single person. It was built from monos, meaning 'alone' or 'single', and arkhein, the verb 'to rule' or 'to be first', the same root that gives us 'archbishop' and 'anarchy'. The Greek term passed into Latin as monarchia and then into Old French as monarchie before entering English in the late 1300s. The 'arch' element, pronounced with a hard 'k' sound, is the spelling trap: it looks as though it should sound like the 'arch' in 'archway', but here it preserves the Greek 'ch' that stood for the sound we write as 'k'. Recognising that the word literally means 'rule by one' makes both the spelling and the meaning easier to hold in mind.

How the word is built

• mon- (single, alone)
• arch (ruler, from arkhein 'to rule')
• -y (noun suffix forming a state or condition)