adjective
-
resembling or appropriate to a queen
-
having the rank of queen
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of queenly
Explanation
If you have a queenly manner, you carry yourself like a queen (or maybe you are one!). Queenly things are fit for a queen, like that tiara you wear on special occasions. You could also call queenly things (or people) regal or aristocratic. Someone who walks with a queenly bearing holds herself proudly, with excellent posture. And if you go on a queenly vacation, it's pretty luxurious and fancy. The words queenly and queen come from an Old English root, cwen, which means both "female ruler of a state," but also simply "wife."
Vocabulary lists containing queenly
Scrabble: Words that Begin with Q
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Buzzwords for National Honey Bee Day
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Ms. McQueen is splendid, Mr. Bean elevates the entire production and Connie Nielsen is an imperious Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman with her own queenly agendas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Then she tosses the cake in the garbage bag on the housekeeping trolley with a queenly flourish, all without breaking her stride to the elevator.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
In an atmosphere of lavish pomp and royal luxury, the queenly Sugar Plum Fairy presides over choreographed tributes by different groups of leaping, frolicking, food-bearing “ambassadors.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 25, 2022
High and flinty, with a bone-deep coal-country drawl that refused to fade even as she ascended to a queenly position in the Nashville star system, her singing sliced through polished arrangements like a sharpened blade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2022
Brit turns as red as Freddie Mercury’s famous queenly cape.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
They may even be queenlier now than they were in 2020; at times I thought they seemed over-primed by the time off.
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2021
Can the world afford him no worthier bride— No bride with a queenlier grace?
From The Path of Dreams Poems by Leigh Gordon Giltner
"Better wait until they get their crowns on," suggested Kitty, "they'll look a heap queenlier then."
From Marjorie's Maytime by Carolyn Wells
The world is old, It hath sent here none queenlier.
From A Lover's Diary, Complete by Gilbert Parker
No dream is mine that does thee less than right: Albeit thy words be wild as warring waves, I know thee higher of heart than shame could smite And queenlier than thy queenship.
From Locrine: a tragedy by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Love first chose, Then prayed,—"No, lily-white,—or, both provide;" And Flora gave the lotus, "rose-red" dyed, And "lily-white,"—the queenliest flower that blows.
From Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt
There, now, that is very kind of you, grandmamma, and194 you are just the dearest, sweetest and queenliest lady that ever made a poor girl happy, when she was, in fact, homesick as death.
From The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
"Sable—fur, you know, the richest, softest, queenliest fur there is."
From The Miller Of Old Church by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
Such is Hermione, in her "proud submission," her "dignified obedience," with her Roman firmness and integrity of soul, heroic in strength, heroic in gentleness, the queenliest of women, the womanliest of queens.
From Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In England by Henry Norman Hudson
Could Music rescue thus from Soul's profound, Give feeling immortality by sound,436 Then were she queenliest of Arts!
From Browning's England A Study in English Influences in Browning by Helen Archibald Clarke
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
