monarchy

Definitions of Monarchy

1. (noun) A government ruled by a typically hereditary head of state either as a figurehead or absolute leader.
2. (noun) A State ruled by a monarch.
3. (noun) A monarch and the royal family.

Examples of Monarchy

Note: Titles of rulers are written in lowercase unless referring to certain individual.

• An emirate, is ruled by an emira (woman) or emir (man).
  • Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates.
• An empire or imperium, is ruled by empress (woman) or emperor (man).
  • Japan is the only contemporary empire; historical examples include the Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, and Ottoman Empire.
• A kingdom or realm is ruled by a queen or queen regnant (woman) or king (man); or rani (woman) or raja (man).
  • Denmark, Spain, and Sweden
• A princedom, principality or princely state, is ruled by a princess (woman) or prince (man).
  • Liechtenstein and Monaco
• A sultanate, is ruled by a sultana (woman) or sultan (man).
  • Brunei and Oman

Types of Monarchy

• absolute monarchy
• constitutional monarchy

Monarchy Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: mon·ar·chy

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /ˈmɑnərki/
• British English – /ˈmɒnəki/

Usage Notes

• Plural: monarchies
• Absolute monarchies were once the norm in Europe. However, most contemporary monarchies are constitutional monarchies with limited or only ceremonial powers (Wright 2006, under “monarchy”).
• The authority of a monarch is typically transferred hereditarily, typically through the eldest son (primogeniture).
• Monarchs typically rule for life.
• A type of authority and government, and political system.
• Variant spelling: monarchie
• A (noun) monarch (adverb) monarchically or (adverb) monarchally rules a monarchy and their authority is described as (adjective) monarchical or (adjective) monarchic or (adjective) monarchistic and they are supported by (noun) monarchists who support (noun) monarchism.

Related Video

Additional Information

• Family and Kinship Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “monarchy” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Ball, Philip. 2004. Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Cannon, John Ashton, and Ralph Alan Griffiths. 2000. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Flannery, Kent, and Joyce Marcus. 2012. The Creation of Inequality: How our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Starkey, David. 2006. Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity. London: HarperPress.
• Turner, Bryan S. 2012. “In Defence of Monarchy.” Society 49(1):84–89. doi:10.1007/s12115-011-9496-6.

Related Terms

• absolute monarchy
• authority
• constitutional monarchy
• democracy
• dictatorship
• government
• leader
• oligarchy
• power
• State

---

Reference

Wright, Edmund, ed. 2006. A Dictionary of World History. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Works Consulted

Bryant, Clifton D., and Dennis L. Peck, eds. 2007. 21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Calhoun, Craig J., ed. 2002. Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cannon, John, ed. 2009. A Dictionary of British History. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Morris, Mike. 2012. Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.

Ritzer, George, ed. 2007. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Roberts, John W. 2007, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Stewart, Paul, and Johan Zaaiman. 2015. Sociology: A Concise South African Introduction. Cape Town: Juta.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Cite the Definition of Monarchy

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “monarchy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved January 16, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/monarchy/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

monarchy. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/monarchy/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “monarchy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/monarchy/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“monarchy.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/monarchy/>.