1. The title of the sovereign ruler of an empire.
2. The chief of a confederation of states of which kings are members. • The rulers of the Roman world adopted the designation emperor after the fall of the republic. The title was later assumed by those — including Napoleon — who claimed to be their successors in the Holy Roman Empire. The sovereigns of Japan and Morocco are often called emperors, as were, in Western speech, the former sovereigns of Turkey and China. The title denotes a power and dignity superior to that of a king. It appears to be the appropriate style of the executive head of a federal government constructed on the monarchial principle and comprising several distinct kingdoms or other quasi-sovereign states, as with the German empire from 1871 to 1918.
