king's English
noun
standard, educated, or correct English speech or usage, especially of England.
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King's English
King's Englishnoun(esp when the British sovereign is male) standard Southern British English
king's English
Americannoun
King's English
British
noun
Etymology
Origin of king's English
First recorded in 1545–55
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.
See Examples For:
He, however, is so wrapped up in his studies of phonetics that his only interest in Eliza is her appalling command of the king's English.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2011
It shows that until about 40 years before Abraham Lincoln entered public life, the Lincolns were a wealthy and distinguished family of ironmasters who spoke the king's English.
From Time Magazine Archive
This book makes no more sense than the king's English, but it projects the same fey charm.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the cockney and king's English of My Fair Lady, past the pure Iowa corn of The Music Man to the pidgin of Flower Drum Song, the best of the musicals make a cosmopolitan chorus.
From Time Magazine Archive
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by John Bartlett
The King's English and Cockney are no longer common dialects among young people in the South East of England, according to a new study.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2023
The Brontës’ novels are stuffed full of dialect, and Heathcliff hardly speaks the King’s English.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2019
In The King’s English, the Fowler brothers counseled against Americanisms, but expressed envy over fall:
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2018
Betsy Burton, an owner of the King’s English, a bookstore in Salt Lake City, said the book “flashed through the staff,” which is heavily female.
From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2014
It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the double negative was declared a sin against the King’s English, on the ground that one negative canceled the other.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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.
