second empire

1. 1.

   the imperial government of Napoleon III in France from 1852-1870

   Broaderempire

Questions about second empire

What does second empire mean?

second empire means "the imperial government of Napoleon III in France from 1852-1870".

Is second empire a common word?

second empire is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.