Skip to content
Allin

Caesar

proper nounnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈsiːzə//
  • United Kingdom//ˈkaɪ.zə//
  • United Kingdom//ˈkaɪ.sɑː//
  • United States//ˈsizəɹ//
  • United States//ˈkaɪ.zəɹ//

An ancient Roman family name, notably that of Julius Caesar.

proper noun

  1. 1

    An ancient Roman family name, notably that of Julius Caesar.

    The Caesars were an ancient and aristocratic family, which for eight generations had been prominent in the commonwealth.

    Habel, 63 ff., believes that up to 51 the emperors bestowed priesthoods on the Caesares, using their special power of commendation; but that these Caesares were forced to wait until a place in a college was vacant; that after 51 the Caesares were elected by the senate.

    To the powerful, the Caesares were flattering, deferential, sincerely devoted, self-sacrificing, loyal, eagerly serving.

    Five of the Caesares were killed during the years 90-85 (D. G., 3, 114).

  2. 2

    figurativeThe government; society; earthly powers.

    Render therefore vnto Ceſar, the things which are Ceſars: and vnto God, the things that are Gods.

    let it be clearly understood that we are dealing with Life solely in its geological aspects. We appeal unto Caesar; let us be judged by Caesar’s laws.

    Caesar may discriminate unjustly against certain races. Christians are not to take issue with Caesar's laws on such matters and flout them, but should submit.

    It is the story of churches that split apart over this issue and of ministers finding ways to justify the return of slaves because they were under the aegis of the laws of Caesar, not the laws of God.

Etymology

From Latin Caesar. Displaced Old English cāsere, which would have yielded *caser, *coser, and Middle English keiser, kaiser, from Old Norse and continental Germanic languages. All ultimately from the same Latin root. (See also Kaiser and tsar.)

noun

  1. 1

    A title of Roman emperors.

    Constantius Chlorus and Galerius became Caesares in 293; […]

    Owing to the victories gained in the wars from 295-297, the two Augusti, Diocletian and Maximian, and the two Caesares, Galerius and Constantius Chlorus, took the title of Carpicus Maximus, the last three receiving this title five times after the fighting from 302-303 (see Table 13).

  2. 2

    An absolute ruler; an autocrat.

  3. 3

    A Caesar cocktail.

  4. 4

    Variant of Caesar saladAbbreviation of Caesar salad.

    A garlicky Caesar is a nice starter with whole Romaine leaves and crispy sourdough croutons, but most can’t resist the creamy, but very rich, signature lobster soup.

    I tell her that I would love a Caesar, which happens to be my favorite salad.

  5. 5

    Variant of Caesarean sectionClipping of Caesarean section.

Forms

plural
Caesars, Caesares
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).