name · noun · verb · 51 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
kwēn
/kwiːn/
[khw̥iːn]
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -iːn
homophone: quean
CMU ARPABET:K W IY1 N
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
name
Meaning 1
Alternative letter-case form of queen (“Virgin Mary”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
name
Meaning 2
In Commonwealth realms, the personification of the Crown, particularly in legal matters.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
Her Majesty the Queen v. John Smith, style of cause of a criminal case.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Regina
Antonyms: none provided
3
name
Meaning 3
A surname transferred from the nickname, originating as a nickname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
name
Meaning 4
An unincorporated community in Eddy County, New Mexico, United States, named after the Queen Ranch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
name
Meaning 5
An unincorporated community in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
The wife, consort, or widow of a king.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
The divorced king was looking for a new queen.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: queen consort, Regina
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: royal
7
noun
Meaning 7
A female monarch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: queen regnant, Regina
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: monarch, royal, sovereign
8
noun
Meaning 8
A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
The Virgin Mary (especially in formulations such as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: Christianity
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: goddess, advocatrix, Blessed Virgin, Blessed Virgin Mary, Christotokos, lady, Madonna, Mother of God, Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, Our Lady of Sorrows, Queen of Heaven, Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, Theotokos, Virgin Mary
Antonyms: none provided
9
noun
Meaning 9
A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
An excellent woman.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: goddess
Antonyms: none provided
10
noun
Meaning 10
A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
A woman pre-eminent in a particular group or field.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: goddess
Antonyms: none provided
11
noun
Meaning 11
A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
An attractive woman; a female partner in a romantic relationship.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: goddess, honey
Antonyms: none provided
12
noun
Meaning 12
A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
A girl or woman chosen to preside in an honorary or ceremonial manner over a specified festivity or occasion, as May Queen, Homecoming Queen, prom queen, pearly queen.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
My mother was queen of the St. Patrick's Day parade when she was 19.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: goddess
Antonyms: none provided
13
noun
Meaning 13
Something regarded as the greatest of its kind or as having pre-eminence or power comparable to that of a queen over a given area.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
14
noun
Meaning 14
Referring to one of several items used in tabletop games:
A chess piece that, under contemporary rules, is the most powerful, able to move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: board-games, chess, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: bitch, dame, lady, old lady, whore
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: chess piece, chessman
15
noun
Meaning 15
Referring to one of several items used in tabletop games:
A playing card with a depiction of a queen on it, generally ranking next below the king and above the jack in a given suit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: card-games, games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: queen regnant, female monarch
Antonyms: king
Broader terms: female aristocrat
Narrower terms: Queen of England, Cleopatra, Isabella, Queen Isabella, Isabella I, Isabella the Catholic, Liliuokalani, Lydia Kamekeha Paki Liliuokalani, Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Stuart
48
noun
Meaning 48
the wife or widow of a king
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: female aristocrat
Narrower terms: queen consort, queen dowager, queen regent, Boleyn, Anne Boleyn, Catherine de Medicis, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Esther, Howard, Catherine Howard, Jezebel, Marie Antoinette, Nefertiti, Parr, Catherine Parr, Seymour, Jane Seymour
49
noun
Meaning 49
something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
Paris is the queen of cities
the queen of ocean liners
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: personification
50
verb
Meaning 50
become a queen
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
her pawn queened
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: promote
51
verb
Meaning 51
promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: promote
History
Etymology
From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“wife, woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gwénh2s (“woman”). Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English Regina). Doublet of quean and gyne. In reference to insects, by analogy with the obsolete term king, which it took over from starting in the 1600s, when they were discovered to be female.
Across languages
Translations
710 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Afrikaans:
koningin
— female monarch
Akan:
hemmea
— female monarch
Albanian:
mbretëreshë
— female monarch
Albanian:
mretëneshë
— female monarch
American Sign Language:
G@Chest-PalmDown G@Abdomen
— female monarch