# kingdom

Pronunciation: say "KING-duhm" /ˈkɪŋdəm/

## Noun

1. A country or realm that has a king or queen as its ruler, whether actually governing or holding the title only in name.
   - Simple: A country ruled by a king or queen.
   - _The kingdom prospered under the new monarch's reign._
   - _Several small kingdoms united over the centuries to form a single nation._
2. A realm, region, or area of thought where something holds sway or dominates above everything else.
   - Simple: An area or world where one thing is the most important or powerful.
   - _Hollywood long remained the kingdom of big-budget entertainment._
   - _He turned his cluttered garage into a kingdom of invention and tinkering._
3. A rank in the classification of living organisms, ranking below domain and above phylum, and any taxon placed at that rank.
   - Simple: A large group used to sort living things, like all animals or all plants.
   - _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._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/kingdom (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).