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William

American  
[wil-yuhm] / ˈwɪl yəm /

noun

  1. Prince William Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge, born 1982, heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom (son of Charles III).

  2. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter W.

  3. a male given name: from Germanic words meaning “will” and “helmet.”


William British  
/ ˈwɪljəm /

noun

  1. known as William the Lion. ?1143–1214, king of Scotland (1165–1214)

  2. Prince. born 1982, Duke of Cambridge, first son of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2011 he married Kate Middleton (born 1982); their son, Prince George, was born in 2013

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Prince William, heir to the UK throne, has described him as a "national treasure".

From Barron's • May 6, 2026

She will visit the historic northern city of Reggio Emilia, her first overseas royal trip since undergoing cancer treatment - with her last being Boston in the US in December 2022, accompanying Prince William.

From BBC • May 5, 2026

“Even as customers increase their AI spending with AWS, there is a halo effect where consumption of AWS core services also increases,” William Blair’s Dylan Carden said in a note to clients last week.

From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026

Jack Thorne, who co-wrote last year’s prize-winning “Adolescence,” returns with another story of fractured childhood with an admirable, engrossing new adaptation of William Golding’s much-taught novel of boy castaways, “The Lord of the Flies.”

From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2026

Wild picked his way carefully over the quaking deck and found William Bakewell and Walter How asleep from exhaustion.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong