monarchy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Government by a monarch.
2. n. A state ruled or headed by a monarch.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Supreme power wielded by a single person; absolute personal authority.
2. n. The principle of government by a monarch; the monarchical system.
3. n. A government in which the supreme power is either actually or nominally lodged in the hands of a monarch or sole ruler, who holds his position for life, generally with hereditary succession. There have been elective, monarchies, in which the successor to a deceased sovereign was chosen without obligatory regard to the hereditary principle; but this principle has finally prevailed, to the exclusion of choice, in all existing civilized monarchies. The former kingdom of Poland was a purely elective monarchy. The German-Roman empire was originally, and always nominally, elective; but for many centuries the chosen successor was almost invariably the heir of the former emperor. An absolute or despotic monarchy is one in which the will of the monarch or sovereign is supreme over all other authority or powers of government; a limited or constitutional monarchy, one in which the sovereign is limited to the exercise of particular powers or functions by the laws or constitution of the realm. More or less limited monarchies have nearly always existed. About the fifteenth century a noteworthy increase of the power of the sovereign took place (as in England under Edward IV., in France under Louis XL., in Spain under Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles V.). Till the close of the eighteenth century the prevalent theory and practice on the continent constituted nearly unrestricted absolutism; this has now almost disappeared from Europe, while still maintaining a foothold in Asia. But whether absolute or limited, the monarch is theoretically regarded as the source of all power, and all acts of government are done in his name.
4. n. The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom; an empire.
5. n. In theology, the doctrine that there is in the Godhead only one principle (ἀρχή), cause (αἰτία), source or fountain (πηγή) of deity, namely God the Father, from whom the Son and the Holy Ghost derive their divinity. Also monorchia.

Wiktionary

1. n. A government with a hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A state or government in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of a monarch.
2. n. A system of government in which the chief ruler is a monarch.
3. n. The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an autocracy governed by a monarch who usually inherits the authority