Pax Britannica

proper noun

The period of British hegemony over the seas and most oversea colonies between the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

OriginNew Latin Pax Britannica →
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. historyThe period of British hegemony over the seas and most oversea colonies between the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

Origin

  1. New LatinPax Britannica
  2. EnglishPax Britannica

Learned borrowing from New Latin Pax Britannica, from pāx (“peace”) + Britannica (“British”) after the model of the imperial Roman Pāx Rōmāna. Earliest recorded use is in 1871 in a work by the British jurist and historian Sir Henry James Sumner Maine.

More words from New Latin

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Translations

Bulgarian Pax Britannica, Пакс Британика
  • Pax BritannicaTranslations
  • Пакс БританикаTranslations
French Paix Britannique
  • Paix BritanniqueTranslations
Latin Pax Britannica
  • Pax BritannicaTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

Pax Britannica. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pax%20Britannica

MLA

“Pax Britannica.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pax%20Britannica. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Pax Britannica,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pax%20Britannica.

Source: Pax Britannica on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.