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
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
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
“You see now, my queenly Blanche,” began Lady Ingram, “she encroaches. Be advised, my angel girl—and—”
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
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
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
"Better wait until they get their crowns on," suggested Kitty, "they'll look a heap queenlier then."
From Marjorie's Maytime by Wells, Carolyn
Can the world afford him no worthier bride— No bride with a queenlier grace?
From The Path of Dreams Poems by Giltner, Leigh Gordon
"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)
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 Hindu literature : Comprising The Book of good counsels, Nala and Damayanti, The Ramayana, and Sakoontala by Arnold, Edwin, Sir
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)
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 Clarke, Helen Archibald
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 Hudson, Henry Norman
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.
