adjective
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resembling or appropriate to a queen
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having the rank of queen
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of queenly
Explanation
If you have a queenly manner, you carry yourself like a queen (or maybe you are one!). Queenly things are fit for a queen, like that tiara you wear on special occasions. You could also call queenly things (or people) regal or aristocratic. Someone who walks with a queenly bearing holds herself proudly, with excellent posture. And if you go on a queenly vacation, it's pretty luxurious and fancy. The words queenly and queen come from an Old English root, cwen, which means both "female ruler of a state," but also simply "wife."
Vocabulary lists containing queenly
Scrabble: Words that Begin with Q
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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:
Ms. McQueen is splendid, Mr. Bean elevates the entire production and Connie Nielsen is an imperious Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman with her own queenly agendas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Then she tosses the cake in the garbage bag on the housekeeping trolley with a queenly flourish, all without breaking her stride to the elevator.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
Regal, queenly and majestic can sometimes register as standoffish or — gasp — going all Hollywood.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2023
“Making Soap” shows a queenly woman on a thronelike chair, overlooking a bubbling kettle on an open fire.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
She had no dragon with her, and her raiment was hardly queenly.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
They may even be queenlier now than they were in 2020; at times I thought they seemed over-primed by the time off.
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2021
Can the world afford him no worthier bride— No bride with a queenlier grace?
From The Path of Dreams Poems by Leigh Gordon Giltner
"Better wait until they get their crowns on," suggested Kitty, "they'll look a heap queenlier then."
From Marjorie's Maytime by Carolyn Wells
Rounder, and queenlier, and more fair Her form grew, and her golden hair Fell yearly richer at the master's side.
From Among the Millet and Other Poems by Archibald Lampman
She drew herself up like a queen, but only that she might look queenlier for his sake, and, bending, kissed his brow, and whispered back his vows.
From A Mountain Woman by Elia Wilkinson Peattie
The opening notes of a festival To jubilate the reign of the summer Beauteous, queenliest, rosy-robed comer.
From The Dales of Arcady by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe
Beverley thought her the queenliest beauty in the world.
From Alice of Old Vincennes by Maurice Thompson
"I am a good prophet," he assured her, and now he let the suppressed merriment dance at will in his pupils, "but don't forget that a queen's queenliest necessity is—kindness."
From Destiny by Charles Neville Buck
Love first chose, Then prayed,—"No, lily-white,—or, both provide;" And Flora gave the lotus, "rose-red" dyed, And "lily-white,"—the queenliest flower that blows.
From Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt
Spencer, if you will consent to take this lead, I will walk among our guests the queenliest woman, in heart at least, to be found in any drawing-room this season.
From Danger Or, Wounded in the House of a Friend by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
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.
