Okuzeka
History vocabulary · Empires, States and Rulers

Ottoman Empire

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˌɒtəmən ˈempaɪə/nounCore term

In history, Ottoman Empire means: The state founded in north-western Anatolia around 1300 by the dynasty of Osman, which grew into an empire across south-eastern Europe, western Asia and North Africa and lasted until 1922.

In Turkish: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Osmanlı Devleti

How it is used

Written with capitals. The adjective Ottoman is used for its people, institutions and culture: Ottoman archives, Ottoman Turkish, the Ottoman court. Historians increasingly compare it with other early modern empires such as the Habsburg and Mughal states.

Example sentences

  1. Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 until its end.

  2. She reads Ottoman Turkish and works on the empire's eighteenth-century trade.

Common collocations

  • the Ottoman Empire
  • Ottoman Turkish
  • the Ottoman archives
  • the Ottoman court
  • Ottoman rule
  • empireA large state or group of territories and peoples ruled by a single supreme authority, often an emperor or sultan, and usually built through conquest.
  • dynastyA series of rulers who come from the same family and pass power from one generation to the next, or the period during which such a family rules.
  • Byzantine EmpireThe eastern part of the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, which survived the fall of the western half and lasted until the Ottoman conquest of 1453.
  • reignThe period during which a king, queen, emperor or sultan rules; as a verb, to rule as a monarch.
  • declineA gradual loss of power, wealth, size or importance, as when an empire, city or industry becomes weaker over a long period.

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: