throne
Americannoun
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the chair or seat occupied by a sovereign, bishop, or other exalted personage on ceremonial occasions, usually raised on a dais and covered with a canopy.
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the office or dignity of a sovereign.
He came to the throne by succession.
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the occupant of a throne; sovereign.
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sovereign power or authority.
to address one's pleas to the throne.
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an episcopal office or authority.
the diocesan throne.
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thrones, an order of angels.
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Facetious. a toilet.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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the ceremonial seat occupied by a monarch, bishop, etc on occasions of state
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the power, duties, or rank ascribed to a royal person
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a person holding royal rank
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(plural; often capital) the third of the nine orders into which the angels are traditionally divided in medieval angelology
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of throne
1175–1225; Middle English < Latin thronus < Greek thrónos high seat; replacing Middle English trone < Old French < Latin, as above
Explanation
The oversized, bejeweled chair on which a king or queen sits is called a throne. Monarchs — kings and queens — sit on thrones on special ceremonial occasions, and so do religious figures such as bishops and popes. You can also describe the act of naming a new monarch this way: "Queen Elizabeth II of England was throned in 1952." The word throne has its root in the Greek thronos, "chair or elevated seat." In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus was said to sit on a special heavenly seat, the Dios thronous.
Vocabulary lists containing throne
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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:
Queen Victoria was on the throne when Rothamsted Research's founders, Sir John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert, began studying a field near Harpenden to find out how fertilisers and manure affected hay yields.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Lawrence, a troubled man who thought himself the heir to the British throne, was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
An Asahi Shimbun poll in May also showed 72 percent of respondents in favour of changing the rules to allow women to ascend the throne.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
For the 25,000th, someone made a throne of beer crates and sat on it, pint in hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“When that bear sits on the throne of Kiev, I will gladly serve her. And you will too.”
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
The ceremony then culminated with Mullally being seated in two different thrones.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
Warner Bros.’ sale has become the industry’s game of thrones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025
On Friday Netflix aced out Paramount Skydance and Comcast to win this game of media thrones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Many Danish and Norwegian royals also send their children to public schools - and it helps that the three heirs to the Nordic thrones have all married commoners.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2024
Aru peered closer at the circle of thrones.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
A hoarder of women, art, antiquities — and most of all, money — Getty also might have taken issue with Portia’s claim that mercy “becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 24, 2017
So Blatter is seeking to be throned for another four years as Fifa big cheese at the elections to be held in June.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 22, 2011
The spectacle of John L. Lewis on Organized Labor's pinnacle, throned on Coal and crowned with Steel, is not fantastic.
From Time Magazine Archive
They have commanded knights and serfs, taken walled towns and sat throned among their armies.
From Time Magazine Archive
A kingdom where kings are throned and dethroned daily.
From "Look Both Ways" by Jason Reynolds
Frederic, though great in royal throning, Well may amaze the earth, and heaven, When clothed by thunder and the levin Swerves he before the hero's fanfare.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 4 by Mabie, Hamilton Wright
How heartily she rained them on the Tuileries and the majesty of the imperial court, throning on high above an abject and trembling people.
From Four Short Stories By Emile Zola by Zola, Émile
My banishment to-day will free Kaikeyí from her cares, that she, At last contented and elate, May Bharat's throning celebrate.
From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)
Don Enrique, returning, told me of it in his room at night, of the Christian service in the mosque and the throning in the Alhambra.
From 1492 by Johnston, Mary
How low when angels fall their black descent, Our primal thunder tells: known is the pain Of music, that nigh throning wisdom went, And one false note cast wailful to the insane.
From Poems — Volume 1 by Meredith, George
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.
