group of countries under one government

iF one country, usually European, owns a number of distant COLONIES and governs them all from a central office at home, this is known as an empire. All the North American colonies belonged once to the British Empire, and had little to do with each other.

a group of countries under a single authority; "the British empire"

a central government with a common language, system of law, and the countries within it are loyal

a large state or federation of states extending over a wide geographical area, and usually developed by the absorption of other peoples and countries

an impossibility for a modern democracy/republic because the modern democracy/republic (unlike older democracies/republics) is universalist

abbr. A shortened form of the phrase "American empire." A state in which 196 countries are eternally grateful, or should be, for being plundered by the 197th. See: democracy

A group of countries subject to one government and/or monarch.