queen
noun
a female sovereign or monarch.
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queen
1 American
[kween]
/ kwin /
noun
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queens
plural
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a female sovereign or monarch.
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the wife or consort of a king.
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a woman, or something personified as a woman, that is foremost or preeminent in any respect.
a movie queen; a beauty queen; Athens, the queen of the Aegean.
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Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a gay man, especially one who is flamboyantly campy or effeminate.
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a playing card bearing a picture of a queen.
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Chess. the most powerful piece of either color, moved across any number of empty squares in any direction.
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Entomology. a fertile female ant, bee, termite, or wasp.
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a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter Q.
verb (used without object)
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queens,
present (3rd person singular)
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queened,
past participle, past
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queening
present participle
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to reign as queen.
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to behave in an imperious or pretentious manner (usually followed byit ).
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Chess. to become promoted to a queen.
Queen
2
American
[kween]
/ kwin /
noun
queen
1
British
/ kwiːn /
noun
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a female sovereign who is the official ruler or head of state
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the wife or widow of a king
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a woman or a thing personified as a woman considered the best or most important of her kind
a beauty queen
the queen of ocean liners
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slang an effeminate male homosexual
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the only fertile female in a colony of social insects, such as bees, ants, and termites, from the eggs of which the entire colony develops
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( as modifier )
a queen bee
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an adult female cat
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one of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a queen
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a chess piece, theoretically the most powerful piece, able to move in a straight line in any direction or diagonally, over any number of squares
verb
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chess to promote (a pawn) to a queen when it reaches the eighth rank
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(tr) to crown as queen
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informal (intr) (of a gay man) to flaunt one's homosexuality
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(intr) to reign as queen
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informal (often foll by over) to behave in an overbearing manner
Queen
2
British
/ kwiːn /
noun
Sensitive Note
The term queen is usually used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting when in reference to a gay man, especially one considered to be effeminate or flamboyant. However, within the gay community, it is sometimes used in a friendly, teasing, or facetious manner, and can also be a positive term of self-reference.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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queensimple
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queenssimple
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have queenedperfect
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has queenedperfect
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am queeningprogressive
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are queeningprogressive
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is queeningprogressive
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have been queeningperfect progressive
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has been queeningperfect progressive
Past
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queenedsimple
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had queenedperfect
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was queeningprogressive
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were queeningprogressive
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had been queeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of queen
First recorded before 900; Middle English quene, quen, Old English cwēn “woman, queen”; cognate with Old Saxon quān, Old Norse kvān, Gothic qēns, from unattested Germanic kwēni-; akin to Old Irish ben, Greek gynḗ woman, Russian zhená, Sanskrit jani “wife”
Explanation
In a monarchy, a queen is the female ruler of the country. Whether you are the Queen of England or the queen of a honey bee colony, you are the female in charge. A queen inherits the title and the job, either from her father (the king) or her mother (the queen). Sometimes the term "queen consort" is used for a king's wife — in this case, the queen isn't the ruler, but merely married to the guy in charge. Many fairs, festivals, and other events crown an honorary queen, so you might be crowned the butter queen at the state fair. There's a queen in chess, the most powerful piece on the board, and a deck of cards has four queens. The most important bee in a colony is also a queen.
Vocabulary lists containing queen
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:
With her distinctive husky voice, tousled mane of blonde hair and black eyeliner, Tyler was instantly recognisable as the queen of the 1980s power ballad.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
“The Rivals of Amziah King” is the story of one queen replacing another in order to keep the colony intact, but we’re not talking about bees at this point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The insects protect their queen, collecting in a roiling, humming mass on his hand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
In this tale of an imprisoned queen, her supposedly dead husband, and her struggle against a usurper, brilliantly characterized arias succeed each other like jewels, ratcheting up the emotion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
May, meanwhile, had inserted herself between the wolf and the fairy queen, trying to stop the animal’s attack.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
The Dendermonde police force is using as its Facebook icon a British golden sovereign with the image of a young Queen Victoria on one side.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
"Farage's plan to turn this by-election into a serious political battle failed," Queen Mary University of London politics professor Stijn van Kessel told AFP, noting the resulting spectacle "makes Farage look rather silly".
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
She arrived in Albert Square with on-screen husband Mick, portrayed by Danny Dyer, when they became the new owners of the Queen Vic pub.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne for the comics, the mutant-villain-turned-hero is a powerful telepath also known as the White Queen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Attention. We have been robbed by an aboatia, a girl wielding a sword purchased from Amazon, a rogue Queen Mother, and a young man with terrible fashion sense,” Tano’s voice sounds over the intercoms.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Since her breakout semi-final performance at the Miami Open last year, Eala has re-ignited interest in tennis in the Philippines, a country obsessed with the three B's - basketball, boxing and beauty queens.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
The fire on stage for Day 2 of the fest started early by a pack of drag queens led by Peaches Christ.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
It lived in the queens who could read a face from across the room, the regulars who noticed an absence and the staff who could feel the room change before anyone else did.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Honeybee queens and worker bees start life in nearly the same way, emerging from almost identical eggs.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
In the tombwalk that day, it had been very clear to him: Here was a story of greedy queens and wicked fathers and war on the horizon, and...it wasn’t his story.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Rxa8, and White soon to be queened pawn will help deliver checkmates in a couple of moves.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 8, 2022
I counted up five, six, ten different tones of shadow at different heights on the mountain slopes, and over all this realm of varied silence the moon queened it pensively.
From Dream Tales and Prose Poems by Constance Garnett
But she herself queened it easily over the bizarre possessions now become hers.
From The Collectors by Frank Jewett Mather
But after that formal opening of the ball the young people had it all their own way, and the four queens queened it royally each with a flock of suitors around her.
From The Rose of Old St. Louis by Mary Dillon
She queened it over demesnes of sprite-like revelry; the life they led was sylvan; at their fêtes the sun assisted.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 by Various
Black can’t be stopped from finally queening the charmed a-pawn, and White resigns the final position as mate is in the offing on 79.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
Kxg2 b5!, and White resigns as he has no pawn on b2 to stop Black’s a-pawn from queening after 49. axb5 a4.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
Ng7, and Black resigned because there is no good way to prevent the White e-pawn from queening after his own queen checks run out.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 3, 2021
Bb6!, and now the White a-pawn has a clear path to the queening square.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 10, 2021
You have been used to queening it all your life—to being flattered, and indulged, and pampered to the top of your bent, and it will do you good.
From Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters A Novel by May Agnes Fleming
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.
