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Holy Roman Empire
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A loosely federated central European political entity that began with the coronation of the German king Otto I as the first emperor in 962. The empire was long troubled, first by the conflict between papal and civil authority and later by religious strife and political fragmentation, and after the 1200s the emperors had little power in most of its constituent states. Upon Francis II's renunciation of his title at Napoleon's instigation in 1806, the empire ceased to exist.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.