Queen Definition & Meaning

American

British

Sensitive Note

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms queen 1 American [kween] / kwin /

noun

1. a female sovereign or monarch.

2. the wife or consort of a king.

3. a woman, or something personified as a woman, that is foremost or preeminent in any respect.

   a movie queen; a beauty queen; Athens, the queen of the Aegean.

4. 1. Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a gay man, especially one who is flamboyantly campy or effeminate.

   2. drag queen.

5. a playing card bearing a picture of a queen.

6. Chess. the most powerful piece of either color, moved across any number of empty squares in any direction.

7. Entomology. a fertile female ant, bee, termite, or wasp.

8. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter Q.

verb (used without object)

1. to reign as queen.

2. to behave in an imperious or pretentious manner (usually followed byit ).

3. Chess. to become promoted to a queen.

Queen 2 American [kween] / kwin /

noun

1. Ellery, joint pen name of Manfred Bennington Lee and Frederick Dannay.

queen 1 British / kwiːn /

noun

1. a female sovereign who is the official ruler or head of state

2. the wife or widow of a king

3. a woman or a thing personified as a woman considered the best or most important of her kind

   a beauty queen

   the queen of ocean liners

4. slang an effeminate male homosexual

5. 1. the only fertile female in a colony of social insects, such as bees, ants, and termites, from the eggs of which the entire colony develops

   2. ( as modifier )

      a queen bee

6. an adult female cat

7. one of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a queen

8. a chess piece, theoretically the most powerful piece, able to move in a straight line in any direction or diagonally, over any number of squares

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

1. chess to promote (a pawn) to a queen when it reaches the eighth rank

2. (tr) to crown as queen

3. informal (intr) (of a gay man) to flaunt one's homosexuality

4. (intr) to reign as queen

5. informal (often foll by over) to behave in an overbearing manner

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Queen 2 British / kwiːn /

noun

1. Ellery (ˈɛlərɪ). pseudonym of Frederic Dannay (1905–82) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–71), US co-authors of detective novels featuring a sleuth also called Ellery Queen

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Sensitive Note

The term queen is usually used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting when in reference to a gay man, especially one considered to be effeminate or flamboyant. However, within the gay community, it is sometimes used in a friendly, teasing, or facetious manner, and can also be a positive term of self-reference.

Other Word Forms

• queenless adjective
• queenlike adjective
• underqueen noun

Etymology

Origin of queen

First recorded before 900; Middle English quene, quen, Old English cwēn “woman, queen”; cognate with Old Saxon quān, Old Norse kvān, Gothic qēns, from unattested Germanic kwēni-; akin to Old Irish ben, Greek gynḗ woman, Russian zhená, Sanskrit jani “wife”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya's main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country.

From BBC

Toward the end of Elizabeth II’s reign, critics argued that the queen had been too soft on her son Andrew.

From The Wall Street Journal

In this kitchen, she was queen, and I was nothing.

From Literature

Olivia Dean was crowned as the UK's new queen of pop, winning four awards as the Brits swapped London for Manchester for the first time in its nearly 50-year history.

From BBC

The letter also refers to primroses the late queen had picked, which she instructed be shared among staff at Royal Lodge.

From BBC

Related Words

• monarch
• ruler

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.