Mona Lisa

American

[moh-nuh lee-suh, lee-zuh] / ˈmoʊ nə ˈli sə, ˈli zə /

noun

Italian La Gioconda. a portrait (1503?–05?) by Leonardo da Vinci.

Mona Lisa British

/ ˈməʊnə ˈliːzə /

noun

Also called: La Gioconda. a portrait of a young woman painted by Leonardo da Vinci, admired for her enigmatic smile

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Mona Lisa Cultural

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci of a woman with a mysterious smile. It is one of the most readily recognized paintings in the world.

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.

Halfway through the show, she appeared as Mona Lisa, singing Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You to a dozen fans who'd been invited onto the stage.

From BBC • May 6, 2026

The Louvre, a former royal palace and home to some of the world's most iconic pieces of art, including Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", receives around nine million visitors a year.

From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026

The Mona Lisa is always on display at the Louvre, Michelangelo’s David in Florence.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 16, 2026

To demonstrate the effect, the team encoded an image of the Mona Lisa into the hydrogel film.

From Science Daily • Feb. 6, 2026

The Mona Lisa had changed so much the Louvre could have changed its wall label.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023