diadem
Americannoun
-
a crown.
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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)
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diademed,
past participle, past
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diademing
present participle
noun
-
a royal crown, esp a light jewelled circlet
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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
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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
If you're looking at it and wondering why it seems familiar, it might be because that diadem was seen on stamps from the late Queen's reign.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2023
Almost 1 meter in diameter, the vessel entombed a woman in her late 20s with a shining silver diadem on her forehead.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 4, 2023
Museum officials tried to hide the diadem and other objects in a secret basement.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2022
“He hid the diadem in the castle, the night he asked Dumbledore to let him teach!” said Harry.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
According to the authorities, eight items were taken including diadems, necklaces, ear-rings and brooches.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
However huge their historical and cultural value, crowns and diadems can easily be broken apart and sold in bits.
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
Summer flowers had passed, but bryony mantled the bushes in luxuriant beauty, and kingly teazles raised their diademed heads, and exultingly stretched forth their sceptred arms.
From Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster by Charlotte Mary Yonge
North and south, the horizon was a chaotic sky land of pinnacles, spired and minareted, steepled and turreted and domed, each diademed with its green and argent of eternal ice and snow.
From The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt
At the same time I was puzzled with certain ornaments below the raised hand of the diademed lady, which I could not explain.
From In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
The bar-keeper brought two glasses crowned with mint and diademed with broken ice.
From Colonel Starbottle's Client by Bret Harte
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.
