realm
Pluralrealms
- 1A sphere of knowledge or influence; an area of activity that someone controls or specializes in.
Questions of grammar lie firmly within her realm of expertise.
Space travel has moved from the realm of fiction into everyday reality.
UsageUsually the realm of a field or idea; things lie within it or move out of it.
- 2A world, region, or domain beyond ordinary reality, such as one found in myth, religion, or fantasy, or any of the zones making up a cosmological scheme of the universe.
The portal led the travelers into a shimmering realm beyond mortal sight.
Ancient legends speak of a realm where time flows backward.
UsageOften a magical realm, the spirit realm, or the realm of the gods.
Note
The kingdom word stretches to whole worlds, a use now at home in fantasy fiction and role-playing games. A realm here is a place apart, often entered through a portal or crossing, whether or not it is ruled from a throne. Myth and religion use it the same way for the separate worlds or layers of a cosmos, such as the nine worlds of Norse belief.
- 3A kingdom, or any territory or state ruled by a monarch, especially a king or queen.
The young queen inherited a realm weakened by years of war.
And, of this island realm, he and his companion were the undisputed sovereigns.
1874, Horatio Alger, Brave and Bold - 4A primary division of the earth's surface defined by its characteristic animal life; a zoogeographical region.
The Australian realm is famous for marsupials found nowhere else.
Biologists assign each region to a realm based on its native fauna.
Similarregion
Note
Biogeographers use it for the largest units on the map of animal life. "Primary" is the key word: a realm is the top tier of the division, drawn by where animals live rather than by climate or political borders. Do not confuse it with the virus rank, where realm names a level of classification, not a piece of the earth's surface.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Zoogeographic realms are the largest divisions, containing smaller regions. zoology.ubc.ca
- Realm boundaries represent organism distributions rather than climatic zones or political territories. en.wikipedia.org
- In virus taxonomy, realm is a classification rank rather than a geographical division. ictv.global
Less common meanings
- 5The Kingdom of Heaven, the spiritual dominion with God as its head.
Note
Here the earthly kingdom is lifted onto heaven. The Old French reaume behind the word simply meant "kingdom", and this use carries a king's territory over to God's rule. As plain vocabulary it is obsolete; it lives on as an archaic, rhetorical flourish. In modern prose, heavenly realm or realm of the Lord signals deliberate solemnity. For ordinary reference, Kingdom of Heaven is the plain phrase.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Realm derives, through Middle English, from Old French reaume, meaning kingdom. en.wiktionary.org
- The heavenly sense applies the concept of a kingdom to God's spiritual dominion. en.wiktionary.org
- 6A taxonomic rank in the classification of viruses, ranking higher than kingdoms.
Practice
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Origin
The word continues Middle English rewme, also spelled realme or reaume, borrowed from Old French reaume, realme ("kingdom"). Its deeper origin is unclear. The usual proposed source is Late or Vulgar Latin *rēgālimen, combining regimen with rēgālis. The present spelling became usual around 1600. The /l/ in today's pronunciation either arose through the spelling or developed under the influence of the word's etymology.