kingdom
n. countablen. a country or area that is ruled by a king or queen. It can also describe one of the main groups that scientists use to classify living things, like the animal kingdom.
n. a country, state, or territory ruled by a monarch. In biological taxonomy, it represents a high-level rank used to classify organisms into broad groups such as animals, plants, or fungi.
The young prince will one day rule the kingdom.
The United Kingdom consists of four distinct countries that share a single monarch and central government.
Biologists traditionally divided all life into five kingdoms, though modern genetic analysis has since introduced the more fundamental rank of domain to better reflect evolutionary history.
From Middle English kingdom, kyngdom, from Old English cyningdōm from Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz, equivalent to king + -dom. Cognate with Scots kingdom, West Frisian keuningdom, Dutch koningdom, German Königtum, Danish kongedømme, Swedish kungadöme, and Icelandic konungdómur. Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *kunją Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.? Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Germanic *-īnaz Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz ? Proto-Germanic *-ingaz Proto-Germanic *kuningaz Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *dʰóh₁mos Proto-Germanic *dōmaz Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz Proto-West Germanic *kuningadōm Old English cyningdōm Middle English kingdom English kingdom
Often used metaphorically to describe a realm of interest or a specific area of nature.