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
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
In the dim light he could see Leslie’s face freeze into its most queenly pose—the kind of expression she usually reserved for vanquished enemies.
From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
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
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 George Meredith
And then I heard—ah! ne'er was known Such judgment without malice, Nor queenlier council ever heard In senate, house or palace!—
From Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 1, January 5, 1884. A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside by Various
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
Can the world afford him no worthier bride— No bride with a queenlier grace?
From The Path of Dreams Poems by Leigh Gordon Giltner
Thou wast queenlier far Than the queenliest flower, More glorious than a star In a fairy bower.
From Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems by James Avis Bartley
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
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
"Sable—fur, you know, the richest, softest, queenliest fur there is."
From The Miller Of Old Church by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
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 Edwin Watts Chubb
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
