queen Meaning & Definition
What Does Queen Mean?
As a noun, queen means the wife or widow of a king. It is also used to mean the wife or widow of a tribal chief. As a verb, it means to act like a queen.
Queen in Brief
| Part of speech | noun, verb |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈkwēn/ |
| Synonyms | tabby, queen regnant and female monarch |
| Antonyms | king, male monarch and bag |
| Plural | queens |
| Verb forms | queens, queening, queened |
Queen Definition (Noun)
- the wife or widow of a king
- the wife or widow of a tribal chief
- a female monarch
- a female chieftain
- a woman eminent in rank, power, or attractions
a movie queen
- a goddess or a thing personified as female and having supremacy in a specified realm
- an attractive girl or woman
- a beauty contest winner
- the most privileged piece of each color in a set of chessmen having the power to move in any direction across any number of unoccupied squares
- a playing card marked with a stylized figure of a queen
- the fertile fully developed female of social bees, wasps, ants, and termites whose function is to lay eggs
- a mature female cat kept especially for breeding
- a gay man
- one who is effeminate
- drag queen
Queen as a Verb
- to act like a queen
- to put on airs
- to become a queen in chess
the pawn queens
- to promote (a pawn) to a queen in chess
Synonyms of Queen
Antonyms of Queen
Queen in a Sentence
The divorced king was looking for a new queen.
My mother was queen of the St. Patrick's Day parade when she was 19.
a movie queen
the pawn queens
During the years that she was queen of the figure skating world, the endorsement offers poured in.
Most men might not look at her twice, but in her lover's eyes she's a queen.
Word Forms & Grammar
queens
queen
queened
queen·ing
queening
queen (plural queens)
queen (third-person singular simple present queens, present participle queening, simple past and past participle queened)
Words That Rhyme With Queen
Origin of Queen
Origin 1: Middle English quene, from Old English cwēn woman, wife, queen; akin to Goth qens wife, Greek gynē woman, Sanskrit jani
Origin 2: From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“wife, woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).
Origin 3: Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English Regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.
Origin 4: In reference to insects, by analogy with the obsolete term king, which it took over from starting in the 1600s, when they were discovered to be female.
First Known Use
before 12th century
circa 1616i
Common Questions About Queen
Is queen a noun or a verb?
Queen is mainly used as a noun, but it can also be used as a verb.
What is another word for queen?
You can replace queen with words such as tabby, queen regnant and female monarch. See the full list of queen synonyms and antonyms.
What is the opposite of queen?
Words opposite in meaning to queen are king, male monarch, bag and frump.
What is the plural of queen?
The plural of queen is queens.
What is the past tense of queen?
The past tense of queen is queened. The present participle is queening.