DictionaryAI

kingdom

noun
KING-duhm/ˈkɪŋdəm/

Pluralkingdoms

3 meanings of kingdom

Practice

  1. 1
    royal countrynouncountable
    A country or realm that has a king or queen as its ruler, whether actually governing or holding the title only in name.

    The kingdom prospered under the new monarch's reign.

    Several small kingdoms united over the centuries to form a single nation.

    Similarrealm, monarchy

    Note

    The name follows the office rather than the person, so a realm under a queen is still a kingdom.

  2. 2
    realm (not a country)nouncountable
    A realm, region, or area of thought where something holds sway or dominates above everything else.

    Hollywood long remained the kingdom of big-budget entertainment.

    He turned his cluttered garage into a kingdom of invention and tinkering.

    UsageUsually the kingdom of plus what rules or fills it: the kingdom of the dead. It often sounds solemn.

    Similarrealm, domain, empire, province

    Note

    Here the language of rule stretches past politics. Whatever dominates a place or a field of thought is treated as its sovereign, an extension of the monarch's realm.

  3. 3
    biology groupnouncountable
    A rank in the classification of living organisms, ranking below domain and above phylum, and any taxon placed at that rank.

    Biologists assign each newly discovered species to a kingdom before narrowing it down further.

    Fungi were eventually separated into their own kingdom, distinct from plants.

    UsageFormal style puts it before a capitalized name: kingdom Fungi. Everyday style says the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom.

    Note

    Older usage drew the lines more broadly. Jonathan Pereira's The Elements of Materia Medica (1839) divides nature into organized and inorganized kingdoms.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Jonathan Pereira wrote The Elements of Materia Medica, whose first part appeared in 1839. archive.org
    • Older classifications extended kingdoms to nonliving natural bodies. archive.org
    • Pereira distinguishes organized and inorganized kingdoms. archive.org

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English kingdom, from Old English cyningdōm, from Proto-Germanic *kuningadōmaz: essentially king combined with the suffix -dom. It is related to Dutch koningdom, German Königtum, and Swedish kungadöme.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts