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:
He scrambled together a videotape, renting out a dungeon batting cage in Manhattan for a throwing session.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
The narrator is paranoid, weepy and violent, overwhelmed by visions of his own death, and the bass sounds as if it’s descending to a windowless dungeon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In response, the leader of Arioka orders Kanbei be thrown in the castle’s impeccably dingy dungeon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
The closer we got to the dungeon, the more the administration building deteriorated.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2024
It was like coming up out of a dungeon, Sandi decided.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
To those images, he adds still lifes he has made of colonial art collections or the architecture of old slave dungeons in Ghana, where the imprisoned were held before transport to the Americas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
She also prayed in a 17th Century chapel that was positioned directly above the dungeons.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
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
By feeding assets like the combative orcs of World of Warcraft, the macabre dungeons of Diablo and the vivacious heroes of Overwatch into the machine, Blizzard can effortlessly produce concept art for new ideas.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2023
Another dreadful day of fear and toil had come to Mordor; and the night-guards were summoned to their dungeons and deep halls, and the day-guards, evil-eyed and fell, were marching to their posts.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
