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• roman
  roman

  noun

  a metrical narrative, especially in medieval French literature.
• Roman
  Roman

  adjective

  of or relating to the ancient or modern city of Rome, or to its inhabitants and their customs and culture.

roman

¹ American  

[raw-mahn] / rɔˈmɑ̃ /

noun

French.

• romans
  plural

1. a metrical narrative, especially in medieval French literature.

2. a novel.

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Roman ² American  

[roh-muhn] / ˈroʊ mən /

adjective

1. of or relating to the ancient or modern city of Rome, or to its inhabitants and their customs and culture.

   Roman restaurants.

2. of or relating to the ancient kingdom, republic, and empire whose capital was the city of Rome.

3. of a kind or character regarded as typical of the ancient Romans.

   Roman virtues.

4. (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.

5. of or relating to the Roman Catholic Church.

6. 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.

7. written in or pertaining to Roman numerals.

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noun

• Romans
  plural

1. a native, inhabitant, or citizen of ancient or modern Rome.

2. the dialect of Italian spoken in Rome.

3. (usually lowercase) roman type or lettering.

4. Disparaging. a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

5. Rare. the Latin language.

6. a male given name.

Roman ¹ British  

/ ˈrəʊmən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Rome or its inhabitants in ancient or modern times

2. of or relating to Roman Catholicism or the Roman Catholic Church

3. 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

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noun

1. a citizen or inhabitant of ancient or modern Rome

2. informal short for Roman Catholic

roman ² British  

/ ˈrəʊmən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or denoting a vertical style of printing type: the usual form of type for most printed matter Compare italic

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noun

1. roman type or print

roman ³ British  

/ rɔmɑ̃ /

noun

1. a metrical narrative in medieval French literature derived from the chansons de geste

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Roman Idioms  

1. see when in Rome do as the Romans do.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anti-Roman
  adjective
• non-Roman
  adjective
• post-Roman
  adjective
• pre-Roman
  adjective
• pro-Roman
  adjective
• pseudo-Roman
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Romans
  plural
• romans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of roman¹

First recorded in 1560–80; from Middle French, French roman; see origin at romance ¹ ( def. )

Origin of Roman²

before 900; < Latin Rōmānus ( see Rome, -an); replacing Middle English Romain < Old French < Latin, as above; replacing Old English Roman ( e ) < Latin, as above

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

roman Roman Romans romans

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

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

The seamless overlap between real life and fictional counterparts, and the faithful reproduction of such well-established facts, conveys the author’s intention to offer a crystal clear clé to this roman à clef.

From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2024

It looked just as it had in Anorak's Invitation: a simple antique copper key, its oval-shaped bow embossed with the roman numeral “I.”

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

In 1962, he started Mercury — named after the Roman god of speed and commerce — with $2 million in capital he raised, six employees and 90 agents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

Alcaraz said he was playing "normal" in a straight-set win over Russia's Roman Safiullin in the first round and reiterated after beating Faria that he is not holding back on his forehand.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

He wasn’t the last Roman politician to sideline the Senate in a bid to obtain extraordinary powers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

And he delighted fans with his entertaining brand of tennis and infectious energy as he beat Russia's Roman Safiullin 6-4 6-4 6-4.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

“Since we got back to the ship,” Piper said, “I’ve been seeing some bad stuff in the knife. The Roman legion is almost within striking distance of Camp Half-Blood. They’re gathering reinforcements: spirits, eagles, wolves.”

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

His contemporaries would have been surprised to learn that Romans came to embrace Christianity in the fourth century.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

"The Romans were incredibly fond of oysters," he said.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Their story remains because the ancient Greeks — and then the ancient Romans, Romanoi Byzantines, Renaissance Dutch and now, an English director and a Kenyan actress — all decided the story belonged to them.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

Hiddleston notes that “one great gift of Pompeii is that the Romans didn’t have paper, so the walls, the columns, the houses, the public buildings are covered in writing: deeds, business contracts, advertisements, gossip, doodles.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

What is it that we now have that the Romans and their Renaissance admirers did not?

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Its obsessive characters, abrupt transitions, abstract narrative and hyper-naturalistic attention to detail also recall the French nouvelle romans of Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2023

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

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

Could the romans surpass the greeks, had the romans not learned from the egyptians and greeks?

From Why a National Literature Cannot Flourish in the United States of North America by Joseph Rocchietti

Related Words

• classic
• humanistic