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• warren
  warren

  noun

  a place where rabbits breed or abound.
• Warren
  Warren

  noun

  Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.

warren

¹ American  

[wawr-uhn, wor-] / ˈwɔr ən, ˈwɒr- /

noun

warrens plural

1. a place where rabbits breed or abound.

2. a building or area containing many tenants in limited or crowded quarters.

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Warren ² American  

[wawr-uhn, wor-] / ˈwɔr ən, ˈwɒr- /

noun

1. Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.

2. Joseph, 1741–75, American physician, statesman, and patriot.

3. Mercy Otis, 1728–1814, U.S. historian and poet (sister of James Otis).

4. Robert Penn, 1905–89, U.S. novelist and poet: named the first U.S. poet laureate (1986–87).

5. a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.

6. a city in NE Ohio, NW of Youngstown.

7. a city in NW Pennsylvania.

8. a town in E Rhode Island.

9. a male given name: from a Germanic word meaning “protection.”

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warren ¹ British  

/ ˈwɒrən /

noun

1. a series of interconnected underground tunnels in which rabbits live

2. a colony of rabbits

3. an overcrowded area or dwelling

4. 1. an enclosed place where small game animals or birds are kept, esp for breeding, or a part of a river or lake enclosed by nets in which fish are kept (esp in the phrase beasts or fowls of warren )

   2. English legal history a franchise permitting one to keep animals, birds, or fish in this way

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Warren ² British  

/ ˈwɒrən /

noun

1. a city in the US, in SE Michigan, northeast of Detroit. Pop: 136 016 (2003 est)

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Warren ³ British  

/ ˈwɒrən /

noun

1. Earl. 1891–1974, US lawyer; chief justice of the US (1953–69). He chaired the commission that investigated the murder of President Kennedy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• warrens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of warren

1350–1400; Middle English warenne < Anglo-French; Old French g ( u ) arenne < Germanic *warinne game park, equivalent to *war- (base of *warjan to defend) + *-inne feminine noun suffix

Explanation

When Bugs Bunny outruns Elmer Fudd and vanishes down his rabbit hole, he's escaping into a warren — a network of underground tunnels where rabbits live. A warren isn't just the maze-like tunnels where rabbits live. You may encounter a warren of subway tunnels or a warren of interconnected bomb shelters. Bring those narrow paths above ground and cluster them with homes and you have another kind of warren, or a maze-like residential area.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

warren Warren warrens

One 11,000-hectare area along the Red River -- roughly the size of Paris -- is slated to become a warren of high-end residential complexes and parks, with roughly 250,000 residents relocated.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

The work depicts a group of characters who find themselves trapped in a warren of bizarrely laid-out rooms resembling empty offices, illuminated by a pallid yellow light.

From Barron's ● May 28, 2026

The morning before he died, Dipu Chandra Das left home at first light, stepping out of his tin-sheet house in Bangladesh's Mymensingh city, overlooking a warren of lanes off the highway from Dhaka.

From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026

“In short order the warren of oddly shaped rooms in the carriage house became spaces for lectures, workshops, and impromptu performances,” Mr. Gennari writes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

“We’re going back to our warren, Kehaar, if we can get there.”

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Warren McClendon Jr., the starting right tackle, has experience playing on the left side.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Warren Baker, a Seattle lawyer who provides advice on IRAs, said he frequently hears from people in Silicon Valley wanting to invest in startups through retirement accounts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

In June, Google parent company Alphabet announced it would raise up to $80 billion in stock to fund its AI efforts, with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway committing $10 billion.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

To add insult to injury, Wales replacement prop Ben Warren was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Marco van Staden.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

In kindergarten, when the teacher had asked this question, Warren had answered with his plans for that afternoon—the afternoon being as far into the future as his five-year-old mind could imagine.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Psychologically, they counter the angst triggered by cramped, airless, maze-like commuter warrens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

The only other mammal thought to maintain stable, mixed-sex, multi-adult groups with several exclusive pair bonds is the Patagonian mara, a large rabbit-like rodent that lives in communal warrens made up of long-term couples.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 22, 2026

Not far from the Canton Fair, there are warrens of workshops in Guangdong making clothes, shoes and bags.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2025

As a result, families, friends and strangers jam into the neighborhood’s old Victorian homes, which have been converted into warrens of studio and one-bedroom apartments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

Nearly all warrens have an Owsla, or group of strong or clever rabbits—second-year or older—surrounding the Chief Rabbit and his doe and exercising authority.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams