dungeon
Americannoun
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dungeons
plural
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a strong, dark prison or cell, usually underground, as in a medieval castle.
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the keep or stronghold of a castle; donjon.
noun
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a close prison cell, often underground
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a variant of donjon
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dungeon
1250–1300; Middle English dungeo ( u ) n, dongeoun, dungun < Middle French donjon < Vulgar Latin *domniōn- (stem of *domniō ) keep, mastery, syncopated variant of *dominiōn- dominion
Explanation
That dank, stone-walled underground prison where wretched prisoners were kept manacled in medieval days? That was a dungeon, otherwise known as the "keep," and most familiar to us today from a million video games and movies. In fact, the original meaning of dungeon was of something overground rather than underground, coming from the Old French term donjon, meaning the "great tower of a castle," and the underground meaning only came later. Rapunzel in the fairy tale was held captive in a tower rather than an underground cell and if she hadn't been, her long hair wouldn't have been much help in her escape.
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:
In response, the leader of Arioka orders Kanbei be thrown in the castle’s impeccably dingy dungeon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
At that point, it felt like a dungeon, the inner rooms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
The dungeon is full of weird, pulsing, half-sentient creatures — more slime than steak.
From Salon ● May 12, 2025
The closer we got to the dungeon, the more the administration building deteriorated.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2024
The stairs were made of stone, as if leading to a dungeon.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
It’s weird to be alive at a time when much of contemporary warfare comprises literal laser beams, flying robots and dungeons full of nerds at computer terminals, but that’s really what’s happening.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2026
Long-running series like The Legend of Zelda tout the Hyrule kingdom’s mysteries, rife with dim dungeons and vast wetlands observed from mountaintops.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
Mr Hamaguchi says the developers want the open world to work as "one single space" with "all of the towns, all of the dungeons and everything linked together seamlessly in one space".
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2023
Never mind that television’s bold step forward in infiltrating the secret lives of women arrived on the wings of a dungeons and dragons-fueled fantasy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
A delicious smell of food was wafting from the Great Hall, but Snape led them away from the warmth and light, down a narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
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.
