Impérial

Impérial is a French adjective and, less commonly, a noun deriving from the Latin imperialis, meaning relating to an empire or to imperial authority. In French, it can describe anything connected with an empire, or convey notions of majesty, dominance, or central authority.

In historical and cultural usage, impérial often appears in phrases related to power and grandeur. It is used to discuss the Empire as a political and symbolic project, as well as artistic and architectural forms associated with imperial rule. The term also appears in the expression style impérial or empire style, a design idiom of the early 19th century linked to the French Empire and characterized by neoclassical motifs, motifs of power, and revivalist imagery.

In metrology, the term unité impériale designates the British Imperial system of measurement, historically used in the United Kingdom and many regions of the former British Empire. This system includes units such as inch, foot, yard, and mile for length, as well as the pint and gallon for volume, and the ounce and pound for weight. It remains in limited use in the UK and some Commonwealth contexts, alongside metric units, and differs from the United States customary system in several conversions and sizes (for example, the imperial pint is larger than the U.S. pint, and the imperial gallon is larger than the U.S. gallon).

As a broader term, impérial may appear in toponyms, branding, or institutional names to evoke grandeur, authority, or historical association with empires. It can also appear in phrases related to imperialism or imperial studies, describing policies, attitudes, or scholarship concerned with empire.