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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.


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.”


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

    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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Warren 2 British  
/ ˈwɒrən /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing warren

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:

The agency offices sit in a dense warren of buildings above a shopping precinct, where vendors sell local fruit and workers queue for takeaway sour soup rice noodles.

From BBC Aug. 10, 2026

The Backrooms began with a single unsettling image posted anonymously online: a claustrophobic warren of tawdrily yellow, windowless rooms with aged carpets and harsh overhead fluorescent lights.

From Science Daily Jul. 26, 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 lot, however, is a congested warren of stages, offices, trailers and support facilities such as woodworking mills that date to the early 20th century.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 5, 2026

Perhaps it might not be too late, even now, to persuade him to agree to a new plan—a plan that would be as good for one warren as the other.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Mathers has been involved with Tail Town since 2021, when Tail Town’s owner Carol Warren, with her daughter, opened the lounge.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 10, 2026

The conglomerate has said in the past that buybacks can happen whenever Abel — after consulting with Chairman Warren Buffett — believes the company’s share price is below its intrinsic value.

From MarketWatch Aug. 10, 2026

The parsimony of the conglomerate chaired by Warren Buffett had been seen as a sign that U.S. equities are too expensive.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 10, 2026

Earl Warren, to start, was governor of California, and that kind of political experience wasn’t uncommon.

From Slate Aug. 10, 2026

Warren strode past, a roll of rope over his arm.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

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

They have been burrowing warrens underground across the park’s peninsula, including near the flare station, heightening concerns about potential gas leaks and spills of contaminated liquids.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 11, 2024

Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.

From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

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