palace
Americannoun
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palaces
plural
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the official residence of a king, queen, bishop, or other sovereign or exalted personage.
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a large and stately mansion or building.
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a large and usually ornate place for entertainment, exhibitions, etc.
noun
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the official residence of a reigning monarch or member of a royal family
Buckingham Palace
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the official residence of various high-ranking church dignitaries or members of the nobility, as of an archbishop
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a large and richly furnished building resembling a royal palace
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of palace
1200–50; Middle English < Medieval Latin palācium, spelling variant of palātium, Latin: generic use of Palātium name of the hill in Rome on which the emperor's palace was situated; replacing Middle English paleis < Old French ≪ Latin Palātium
Explanation
A palace is a beautiful, large house where someone important, like a king, lives. Have you ever seen Buckingham Palace? That's where the Queen of England lives, and it's an enormous, ornate, heavily guarded building, which is typical of palaces. Palaces are lavish and over-the-top, because they are usually the home of a ruler such as a king, queen, or dictator. If you don’t live like a king, take comfort in this quote from the English poet John Donne: “Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.”
Vocabulary lists containing palace
"Return to Titanic" and "Talking with Robert Ballard"
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Unit 13
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 4–June 10, 2022
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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 was Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, who laid flowers outside the palace and signed a book of condolences after greeting the new king, said the country was "united in grief and gratitude".
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
After Harald's death was announced early on Friday, crowds amassed at the royal palace in Oslo, laying flowers and flags, some mourners visibly in tears.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Uganda's tempestuous army chief has once again vowed to run for president and succeed his long-ruling father, but palace intrigues are swirling as he faces a challenge from a brother-in-law.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
By the end of the day, the Taliban had overrun the presidential palace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
All the palace mice, of course, and we greatly outnumber the humans.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
The city had no known palaces where a ruler or ruling class could have controlled these tools of commerce and administration.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026
Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, presidential palaces, hospitals and roads in Pacific island nations.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
It is also unclear what the public gets in return for paying to upkeep a great number of royal residences and palaces, though some are an important draw for tourists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
His two daughters have homes in the Cotswolds and in Portugal as well as their royal properties in the palaces.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
The broken stones of temples and palaces were sinking back into the earth, and gnarled old willows grew thick along the riverbanks.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
