Imperial–royal should not be confused with Imperial and Royal.
The adjective German: kaiserlich-königlich (usually abbreviated to German: k. k.), German for imperial–royal, was applied to the authorities and state institutions of the Austrian Empire until the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thereafter the abbreviation German: k. k. only applied to institutions of the so-called Cisleithania (i.e. those lands not part of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen/Transleithania: Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia; Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed in 1878 from the Ottoman Empire, was a condominium of Cis- and Transleithania). Common institutions of both halves of the empire were described from 1867 to 1918 as German: [[kaiserlich und königlich]]/k. u. k. ("imperial and royal"). Contrary to the regulations, the Common Army continued to use the abbreviation German: k. k. to describe itself until 1889.
Today, the abbreviation k. k. is often loosely replaced by German: k. u. k. ("k and k"), but the two terms are historically and legally distinct. The prefix German: k. u. k. (German: kaiserlich und königlich) only properly referred to the authorities and institutions of both halves of the empire. The first German: k. (German: [[kaiserlich]] = "imperial") referred to the Emperor of Austria. In German: k. k., the second German: k. (German: königlich = "royal", literally "kingly") referred, from 1867, to the King of Bohemia (the Kingdom of Bohemia/Lands of the Bohemian Crown were part of Cisleithania). In German: k. u. k., the second German: k. (German: königlich) referred to the King of Hungary. Both the titles King of Bohemia and King of Hungary were borne by the Emperor.
The abbreviation German: h. k. k., which was frequently used in connection with the central ministries, meant "high" imperial–royal (German: hohes kaiserlich-königliches), e.g. in German: h. k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht, German: h. k. k. Statthalterei für Tirol und Vorarlberg,[1] German: h. k. k. Ministerium für Handel und Volkswirthschaft, etc.[2]