plural queens
1
a
: the wife or widow of a king
b
: the wife or widow of a tribal chief
2
a
: a female monarch
b
: a female chieftain
3
a
: a woman eminent in rank, power, or attractions
a movie queen
b
: a goddess or a thing personified as female and having supremacy in a specified realm
c
: an attractive girl or woman
especially
: a beauty contest winner
4
: the most privileged piece of each color in a set of chessmen having the power to move in any direction across any number of unoccupied squares
5
: a playing card marked with a stylized figure of a queen
6
: the fertile fully developed female of social bees, wasps, ants, and termites whose function is to lay eggs
7
: a mature female cat kept especially for breeding
8
slang, often disparaging
: a gay man
especially
: an effeminate one
9
queened; queening; queens
1
: to act like a queen
especially
: to put on airs
—usually used with it
queens it over her friends
2
: to become a queen in chess
the pawn queens
: to promote (a pawn) to a queen in chess
Synonyms
Examples of queen in a Sentence
Noun
She was crowned queen of England.
the reign of Queen Elizabeth
the king and his queen
the queen of the blues
She was voted queen of the prom.
This ship is the queen of all the ocean liners.
Recent Examples on the Web
David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 July 2017
THE TRENDSETTER Salt & Straw is the homecoming queen of ice cream in LA.
—Cole Kazdin, Los Angeles Magazine, 14 July 2017
Vulture, 3 Jan. 2024
Within this process, Jemc discovered Elisabeth of Bavaria, nicknamed Sisi, who was Ludwig’s cousin, closest confidant and an empress and queen herself.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2023
See all Example Sentences for queen 
Noun
While Jon is bound to leadership by a sense of duty, Daenerys sees herself as a liberator, a queen steeped in moral righteousness who freed slaves across the sea for the greater good.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 July 2017
THE TRENDSETTER Salt & Straw is the homecoming queen of ice cream in LA.
—Cole Kazdin, Los Angeles Magazine, 14 July 2017
Verb
Never one to miss out on the drama, Shah took a break from queening out with Elizabeth Holmes in prison and got someone to post on her Instagram Story.
—Vulture, 3 Jan. 2024
Within this process, Jemc discovered Elisabeth of Bavaria, nicknamed Sisi, who was Ludwig’s cousin, closest confidant and an empress and queen herself.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2023
See all Example Sentences for queen
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'queen.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near queen
Cite this Entry
“Queen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queen. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
queen
1 of 2 noun1
: the wife or widow of a king
2
: a woman who rules a kingdom in her own right
3
a
: a woman of supreme rank, power, or attractiveness
a society queen
b
: something thought of as female and being at the top in a particular field
queen of the ocean liners
4
: the most powerful piece in the game of chess
5
: a playing card bearing the figure of a queen
6
: the fertile fully developed female of social bees, ants, and termites whose purpose is to lay eggs
queen
2 of 2 verb1
: to act like a queen
especially
: put on airs
2
: to become or promote to a queen in chess
Etymology
Noun
Old English cwēn "woman, wife, queen"
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