adjective
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resembling or appropriate to a queen
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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
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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:
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
So I tried to be as queenly as possible, coming from one queen to see some more queens tonight.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 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
Regal, queenly and majestic can sometimes register as standoffish or — gasp — going all Hollywood.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2023
Miss Ingram, who had now seated herself with proud grace at the piano, spreading out her snowy robes in queenly amplitude, commenced a brilliant prelude; talking meantime.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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
Now, sweet mistress, will you deign To come with me, to change these cheerless woods For something queenlier?
From Collected Poems Volume Two by Noyes, Alfred
His tales of her declare she condescends; Can share his fires, not always goads and rends: Moreover, quits a throne, and must enclose A queenlier gem than woman's wayside rose.
From Poems — Volume 3 by Meredith, George
The world is old, It hath sent here none queenlier.
From A Lover's Diary, Volume 2. by Parker, Gilbert
Rounder, and queenlier, and more fair Her form grew, and her golden hair Fell yearly richer at the master's side.
From Among the Millet and Other Poems by Lampman, Archibald
He was the prince of scholars; a memory of superlative power waiting, as submissive handmaid, on the queenliest imagination.
From Stories of Authors, British and American by Chubb, Edwin Watts
"Then let the funeral bells be tolled, a requiem be sung, An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young; A dirge for her—the doubly dead, in that she died so young."
From Guy Livingstone; or, 'Thorough' by Lawrence, George A. (George Alfred)
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young— A dirge for her, the doubly dead in that she died so young.
From Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works by Poe, Edgar Allan
"Sable—fur, you know, the richest, softest, queenliest fur there is."
From The Miller Of Old Church by Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson
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 Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
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.
