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imperious

adjective/ɪmˈpɪərɪəs/

C1CEFR level
58/100Rarity: uncommon
FormalRegister

Domineering and overbearing in an arrogantly commanding way.

With an imperious wave of her hand, she dismissed the entire committee.

Similar: overbearing, autocratic, commanding

Origin: From Latin imperiosus 'commanding', from imperium 'command'.

Topic: domineering in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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