diadem
Americannoun
-
a crown.
-
a cloth headband, sometimes adorned with jewels, formerly worn by monarchs in Asia Minor and other parts of the East.
-
royal dignity or authority.
verb (used with object)
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diadems,
present (3rd person singular)
-
diademed,
past participle, past
-
diademing
present participle
noun
-
a royal crown, esp a light jewelled circlet
-
royal dignity or power
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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diademsimple
-
diademssimple
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have diademedperfect
-
has diademedperfect
-
am diademingprogressive
-
are diademingprogressive
-
is diademingprogressive
-
have been diademingperfect progressive
-
has been diademingperfect progressive
Past
-
diademedsimple
-
had diademedperfect
-
was diademingprogressive
-
were diademingprogressive
-
had been diademingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of diadem
1250–1300; Middle English diademe (< Anglo-French ) < Latin diadēma < Greek diádēma fillet, band, equivalent to diadē- (verbid stem of diadeîn to bind round + -ma noun suffix
Explanation
A diadem is a crown, or something on a crown. If you’ve just won the Miss America pageant, reach up your hand — that’s right — that rhinestone encrusted circlet on your head? That’s a diadem. While diadem is a straightforward word meaning "crown," it can also refer to the jewels or other ornaments on a crown. It also sounds like diamond, which is handy for remembering the meaning, because a crown might well have diamonds on it. Or, the diadem could be the diamond on the crown. Technically, you could have a diadem on a diadem, but it would be confusing to say it that way. It comes from the Greek diadema, which was cloth tied around the head to signify royalty. Not as nice as diamonds though, really!
Vocabulary lists containing diadem
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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:
Among them are an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
The greenstone ornaments are typical of the Late Classic period and the mask and diadem are known to be exclusive to Maya royalty.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 17, 2024
It does not have any crown or royal symbols - unlike many of the predecessors, where kings' stamps often include an image of a crown and queens are depicted wearing a crown or diadem.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2023
The initial notes bore a portrait of the queen wearing the family’s diamond diadem.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2022
He had traveled to that far-flung forest and retrieved the diadem from its hiding place, perhaps as soon as he left Hogwarts, before he even started work at Borgin and Burkes.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
However huge their historical and cultural value, crowns and diadems can easily be broken apart and sold in bits.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
According to the authorities, eight items were taken including diadems, necklaces, ear-rings and brooches.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
In ancient Etruscan civilization, antefixes were lively terra-cotta objects that often depicted female figures crowned by diadems, a jeweled crown or headband.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2021
As for the people, they will get help wherever they can; prayers and spells and amulets combine ankhs, crosses, old deities, seven-point diadems, the archangel Gabriel.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 30, 2015
Cloaks of turkey feathers fluttered from their shoulders; huge feather diadems exploded gaudily round their heads.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
"This population of diademed sifakas is already in bad shape," Bonadonna said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
Timour—he Whom the astonished people saw Striding o'er empires haughtily A diademed outlaw!
From Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works by Edgar Allan Poe
Plenipotent, majestic night settled on the throne of the supernal cosmos, diademed with a million twinkling jewels to dazzle his mundane subjects.
From The Red Debt Echoes from Kentucky by Everett MacDonald
Perhaps if the diademed tyrants had treated it with indifference, the effects would have been otherwise.
From An Old Sailor's Yarns by N. (Nathaniel) Ames
This pale crescent was “the likeness of a kingly crown;” what it diademed was “the shape which shape had none.”
From Jane Eyre by F. H. Townsend
When home, he dwells in a spacious, squatty, fenced-in, brownstone mansion, diademing St. Paul's exclusive Crocus Hill.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
