a metrical narrative, especially in medieval French literature.
a novel.
of or relating to the ancient or modern city of Rome, or to its inhabitants and their customs and culture.
Roman restaurants.
of or relating to the ancient kingdom, republic, and empire whose capital was the city of Rome.
of a kind or character regarded as typical of the ancient Romans.
Roman virtues.
(usually lowercase) designating or pertaining to the upright style of printing types most commonly used in modern books, periodicals, etc., of which the main text of this dictionary is an example.
of or relating to the Roman Catholic Church.
noting, pertaining to, or resembling the architecture of ancient Rome, especially the public and religious architecture, characterized by the employment of massive brick and concrete construction, with such features as the semicircular arch, the dome, and groin and barrel vaults, by the use in interiors of marble and molded stucco revetments, by the elaboration of the Greek orders as purely decorative motifs for the adornment of façades and interiors, and by an overall effect in which simplicity and grandeur of massing is often combined with much elaboration of detailing.
written in or pertaining to Roman numerals.
a native, inhabitant, or citizen of ancient or modern Rome.
the dialect of Italian spoken in Rome.
(usually lowercase) roman type or lettering.
Disparaging. a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rare. the Latin language.
a male given name.
of or relating to Rome or its inhabitants in ancient or modern times
of or relating to Roman Catholicism or the Roman Catholic Church
denoting, relating to, or having the style of architecture used by the ancient Romans, characterized by large-scale masonry domes, barrel vaults, and semicircular arches
a citizen or inhabitant of ancient or modern Rome
informal short for Roman Catholic
First recorded in 1560–80; from Middle French, French roman; see origin at romance 1 ( def. )
before 900; < Latin Rōmānus ( see Rome, -an); replacing Middle English Romain < Old French < Latin, as above; replacing Old English Roman ( e ) < Latin, as above
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After all, her next book is a roman à clef about Gala, and writing about a woman who might be in dire straits would be exploitative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
The sparks, he said, resembed a "giant roman candle" and went from the plane's nose to its tail.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2025
“Did elon musk just hit the roman salute at his inauguration speech?”
From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2025
Every year, the workshop produces hundreds of smaller “bulls,” with roman candles for horns that are carried on someone’s shoulders through the streets of countless small towns in Mexico, sending kids skittering in delight.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
Bletchley Park was secret site number 10—X in roman numerals.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
High up on the Bolivian Altiplano, Potosí was once a glorious “imperial city,” deemed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to be the “Treasure of the World.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
The Spain boss used a quote from Roman general Julius Caesar in his news conference in Dallas.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
He eventually sold the club to Roman Abramovich in 2003 in a deal worth £140m when they were in the English top flight.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Fendi, owned since 2001 by French conglomerate LVMH, hired Chiuri last October, bringing the Roman back to the house where she started her career in accessories under Lagerfeld.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
Sitting with those magazines, it was as if he were studying the chess equivalent of Plutarch’s lives of the Roman generals or Vasari’s lives of the artists.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Cultivated for millennia, Armenia's famed apricots were known to ancient Romans as the "Armenian apple."
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
For thousands of years, the ancient city of Sardis in western Turkey changed hands as Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans rose and fell.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026
Below the compound, alongside its supporting Western Wall, Jews pray and mourn the destruction by the Romans of the Jewish Temple on the platform above, almost 2,000 years ago.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
But it’s a stretch to say that this is something “the Romans taught us.”
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026
However, since the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans did not have zero, the Western calendar does not have any zeros—an oversight that would cause problems millennia later.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
This record further emphasizes her leap away from autobiography into songs that are either pure fictions or else lyrically symbolic in ways that don’t act as romans à clef.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2020
“I’m sad that this is what America demands as entertainment. We’re the romans, cheering for the lions. ‘Are you not entertained?’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2019
In bookstores there was a boomlet in rakishly intelligent literary romans à clef.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2017
That “lunacy” is evidenced, for example, by Hester’s efforts to make romantic romans à clef out of Murdoch’s books.
From The New Yorker ● May 10, 2016
And as the favorite kind of writing in Provençal, Old French, and Spanish was the tale of chivalrous adventure that was called par excellence, a roman, romans, or_ romance_.
From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)
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.
