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:
When the rabble in the street gets too close to the presidential palace for comfort, they keep half an eye on Florida real estate, much like Northeast Corridor retirees.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
Behind guarded gates resembling an Indian maharajah's palace are hundreds of elephants and big cats, giraffes grazing in a mock savannah, and chimpanzees and orangutans swinging from ropes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
The monarch inspected a guard of honor before travelling to Georgetown, where he attended a state reception at the presidential palace.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Those themes will be reflected by the King through the nine-day visit, the palace said.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
One day you get a fancy invitation to the palace for a party to celebrate the king’s new jacket or something.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
The room is described as a "calm, cosy place for contemplation" by the independent charity which looks after six royal sites and palaces.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Maybe it’s not just that he envies their absolute power on the home front or their unabashedly lavish palaces.
From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2026
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
Yachts akin to floating palaces fill the marina, celebrity chefs jet in for residencies at local restaurants and Pampelonne Beach morphs into a sandy catwalk with seasonal beach clubs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
He explained how in former centuries, before the arrival of the French, the Abomey kings had enormous palaces and very nice clothes.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
