Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A political or territorial unit ruled by a sovereign.
  • noun The eternal spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ.
  • noun The realm of this sovereignty.
  • noun A realm or sphere in which one thing is dominant.
  • noun In the Linnean taxonomic system, the highest taxonomic category into which organisms are grouped, based on fundamental similarities and common ancestry. One widely used taxonomic system designates five or six such groups: animals, plants, fungi, protists, and prokaryotes (often divided into bacteria and archaea). Other systems divide organisms into domains (eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea) that replace or rank above kingdoms.
  • noun One of the three main divisions (animal, vegetable, and mineral) into which natural organisms and objects have traditionally been classified.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The power or authority of a king; regal dominion; supreme rule.
  • noun The state of being a king; kinghood; kingship.
  • noun The territory or country subject to a king; the dominion of a king or monarch (see king, 1); in general, a domain; country.
  • noun Anything conceived as constituting a realm or sphere of independent action or control: as, the kingdom of thought.
  • noun In the New Testament, with the definite article, usually in fuller phrase the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, the spiritual reign of God as supreme king, and over subjects loyally accepting it: generally conceived as founded by the Messiah, and therefore a Messianic kingdom.
  • noun In natural history, one of the three great divisions in which natural objects are ranked in classification—namely, the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; sovereign power; rule; dominion; monarchy.
  • noun The territory or country subject to a king or queen; the dominion of a monarch; the sphere in which one is king or has control.
  • noun An extensive scientific division distinguished by leading or ruling characteristics; a principal division; a department. In modern biology, the division of life into five kingdoms is widely used for classification.
  • noun See under Animal.
  • noun The authority or dominion of God.
  • noun See under Mineral.
  • noun See under United.
  • noun See under Vegetable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A nation having as supreme ruler a king and/or queen.
  • noun biology, taxonomy A rank in the classification of organisms, below domain and above phylum; a taxon at that rank (e.g. the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a monarchy with a king or queen as head of state
  • noun a domain in which something is dominant
  • noun the highest taxonomic group into which organisms are grouped; one of five biological categories: Monera or Protoctista or Plantae or Fungi or Animalia
  • noun the domain ruled by a king or queen
  • noun a basic group of natural objects
  • noun a country with a king as head of state

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English cyningdōm : cyning, king; see king + -dōm, -dom.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English kingdom, kyngdom, from Old English cyningdōm ("kingly power, kingship; a kingdom, government"), equivalent to king +‎ -dom. Cognate with Scots kingdom ("kingdom"), West Frisian keuningdom ("kingship, kingdom"), Dutch koningdom ("kingly power, kingship, kingdom"), German Königtum ("kingship"), Danish kongedømme ("kingdom"), Swedish kungadöme ("kingdom"), Icelandic konungdómur ("kingdom").

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Examples

  • Christ's coming to take the kingdom, will be given, and witnesses of the truth of Christianity, which cannot be disputed, suddenly arise, to the surprize and confusion of scoffing sinners; multitudes of whom will be swept off by desolating judgments to prepare the way for "the people of the saints of the most high, _whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom_."

    Sermons on Various Important Subjects Andrew Lee

  • "The saints of the most high shall take the kingdom, and _possess the kingdom for ever, even forever and ever_ -- and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, _whose kingdom is an ever lasting kingdom_, and all dominion shall serve and obey him."

    Sermons on Various Important Subjects Andrew Lee

  • By _keys of the kingdom of heaven_, thus apprehend, Christ promiseth and giveth not the sword _of the kingdom_, any secular power; nor the sceptre _of the kingdom_, any sovereign, lordly, magisterial power over the Church.

    The Divine Right of Church Government by Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

  • _No scutage or aid [26] shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by the general council of our kingdom_; except for ransoming our person, making our eldest son a knight, and once for marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall be paid no more than a reasonable aid.

    Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins John Fiske 1871

  • Spiritual in the matter of it, and the several parts of this power: therefore called the _keys of the kingdom of heaven_, not the keys of the kingdoms of earth, Matt.xvi. 19, (as Christ professed his _kingdom was not of this world_, John xviii. 36; and when one requested of

    The Divine Right of Church Government by Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

  • Constitution_ of the kingdom, by breaking the _original contract_ between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the _fundamental_ laws, and _having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom_, hath _abdicated_ the government, and the throne is thereby _vacant_. "

    The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12) Edmund Burke 1763

  • Jordan uses the word kingdom so it can project the image of a fairy tale.

    Unveiled Deborah Kanafani 2008

  • Christians all expected the kingdom of God in the future, we may look upon it as one of the facts which we know with the greatest certainty that in the message of Jesus the term kingdom of God has an eschatological connotation, that it stands for the new world that is to come.

    The Beginnings of Christianity. Vol. I. 1872-1939 1903

  • a kingdom is a word of might, and gently sounding are the terms that compose the style of royalty.

    I.4 1826

  • To be sure, Jesus preached the ideal society in the word "kingdom" but the biggest claim Jesus made was that the kingdom "was here" or "was arriving."

    Scot McKnight: Christianity As Country Club Scot McKnight 2011

Comments

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  • Sometimes WordNet's definitions are just brutally ugly.

    October 23, 2008

  • Is it like this

    In death's other kingdom

    Waking alone

    At the hour when we are

    Trembling with tenderness

    Lips that would kiss

    Form prayers to broken stone.

    - TS Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'.

    July 22, 2009

  • A domain in which something is dominant. That's pretty deep, weirdnet.

    July 22, 2009

  • Those who have crossed

    With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom

    Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost

    Violent souls, but only

    As the hollow men

    The stuffed men.

    -TS Eliot, 'The Hollow Men.' again

    July 22, 2009