Napoleonic

American

[nuh-poh-lee-on-ik] / nəˌpoʊ liˈɒn ɪk /

adjective

pertaining to, resembling, or suggestive of Napoleon I, or, less often, Napoleon III, or their dynasty.

the Napoleonic era; a Napoleonic attitude toward one's employees.

Napoleonic British

/ nəˌpəʊlɪˈɒnɪk /

adjective

relating to or characteristic of Napoleon I or his era

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Napoleonically adverb
post-Napoleonic adjective
pre-Napoleonic adjective

Etymology

Origin of Napoleonic

First recorded in 1860–65; Napoleon + -ic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

After being controlled by the French, who brought in slaves from Madagascar and elsewhere to work coconut plantations, it was taken over by the British after the Napoleonic wars.

From The Wall Street Journal

Even before World War I and II, war had ravaged the European continent, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Franco-Prussian War.

From The Wall Street Journal

As to character, Mr. Brown portrays Roosevelt as a “flaming exhibitionist” with “megalomania” and “Napoleonic swagger.”

From The Wall Street Journal

At the same time, tourists and non-residents will have to pay to see the Trevi fountain and five other attractions including the Napoleonic Museum.

From BBC

The great struggles of the past, he points out, were primarily coalition wars—the Napoleonic Wars, for example, and the two world wars.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023