honeymoon
Americannoun
-
honeymoons
plural
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a vacation or trip taken by a newly married couple (often used attributively).
After you've said "I do," why not escape to a dream honeymoon in Greece?
Relax and kindle the flame of passion in one of our honeymoon suites.
-
a period of harmony at the beginning of a marriage.
After the initial honeymoon, there may be a temptation to let routine take over.
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any period of blissful harmony.
Their entire 60 years of marriage was one long honeymoon.
-
any new relationship characterized by an initial period of harmony and goodwill.
The honeymoon between Congress and the new president was over.
verb (used without object)
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honeymoons,
present (3rd person singular)
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honeymooned,
past participle, past
-
honeymooning
present participle
noun
-
-
a holiday taken by a newly married couple
-
( as modifier )
a honeymoon cottage
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-
a holiday considered to resemble a honeymoon
a second honeymoon
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the early, usually calm period of a relationship, such as a political or business one
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
honeymoonsimple
-
honeymoonssimple
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have honeymoonedperfect
-
has honeymoonedperfect
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am honeymooningprogressive
-
are honeymooningprogressive
-
is honeymooningprogressive
-
have been honeymooningperfect progressive
-
has been honeymooningperfect progressive
Past
-
honeymoonedsimple
-
had honeymoonedperfect
-
was honeymooningprogressive
-
were honeymooningprogressive
-
had been honeymooningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of honeymoon
Explanation
A honeymoon is a trip that newlyweds traditionally take right after their wedding. You might want to wait to get married until you meet someone who wants to go to Legoland on a honeymoon as much as you do. Some honeymoons are long and luxurious, involving cruises and Europe or tropical beaches and fancy hotels, while others are simple and low-key. Many married couples don't take a honeymoon at all, or wait years until having a holiday they call a honeymoon. In the 1540s, it was a hony moone, and it referred more generally to the sweet, tender span of time after a wedding. In German, it's a flitterwochen, or "tinsel week."
Vocabulary lists containing honeymoon
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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:
Grotts isn’t a fan of honeymoon funds—she called the concept a “money-moon”—but noted that, when giving a couple cash, “it’s theirs to use however they wish.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Now, he’s often being asked by couples for cash they can put toward a honeymoon or down payment on a house—sometimes via Venmo links on their wedding websites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
"It feels like we will spend our honeymoon at Gatwick," Sasha added.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
For their honeymoon, the couple are planning to head to Loch Ness to take part in a boat race with a crew of 18.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
By lunchtime I’d planned our honeymoon in Italy and was trying to decide if we should name our first son Orbit or Cosine, when someone slid into the chair beside me.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
The marriages are not legally binding, but viewers see the couples go on "honeymoons", before moving in together and navigating their relationships - all while being filmed, almost every day.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Massive infrastructure projects generally take longer than political honeymoons like the one Carney is enjoying, warns Alex Marland, professor of Canadian politics at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026
“There’s definitely a demand for child-free spaces, especially when we’re talking about honeymoons and things like that,” said D.C.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2025
Now she mitigated the humiliation of letting someone else deal with her body’s waste by asking about their honeymoons and graduations and divorces.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2023
Its swaths of deep brush and arable land made it great for farming but less appealing for honeymoons and hedonism.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
The Sullivan Canyon home was inspired by the architecture of classic California ranches including San Ysidro Ranch, where John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
They married in 2004 in her hometown of Fayetteville, Ark., and honeymooned in Africa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2025
Still, the hotel maintained its sentimental pull as the place where your parents honeymooned; where you spent your first night in the big city; where you rendezvoused with friends.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
Bernstein and his wife, Meryl, honeymooned in Japan after their wedding in 2013.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
They honeymooned on Samos, the old stories tell us.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
A private tour to North America organised by Arthur Malley in 1932, which included a honeymooning Don Bradman, saw an Australian XI held to several draws including some on US soil.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2024
I read it in the summer of 2017 while honeymooning in Crete, a place whose Minoan civilization figures prominently in Cline’s narrative.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2024
While his mother and new stepfather spend Christmas honeymooning in the Caribbean, Angus is left under the supervision of Paul, who has no family, friends or winter plans to speak of.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
In the 1950s, Ms. Andersen moved to the Long Beach area in Southern California after honeymooning there with her first husband, Helge Jeppesen.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 2, 2023
He had been honeymooning with his fifth wife when he broke his leg.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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.
