QUEEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does queen mean? 

• QUEEN (noun)
  The noun QUEEN has 10 senses:

1. the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs

2. a female sovereign ruler

3. the wife or widow of a king

4. something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind

5. a competitor who holds a preeminent position

6. offensive term for a homosexual man

7. one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a queen

8. (chess) the most powerful piece

9. an especially large mole rat and the only member of a colony of naked mole rats to bear offspring which are sired by only a few males

10. female cat

  Familiarity information: QUEEN used as a noun is familiar.

• QUEEN (verb)
  The verb QUEEN has 2 senses:

1. promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess

2. become a queen

  Familiarity information: QUEEN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• QUEEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

queen bee (fertile egg-laying female bee)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A female sovereign ruler

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

female monarch; queen; queen regnant

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

Queen of England (the sovereign ruler of England)

Instance hyponyms:

Cleopatra (beautiful and charismatic queen of Egypt; mistress of Julius Caesar and later of Mark Antony; killed herself to avoid capture by Octavian (69-30 BC))

Isabella; Isabella I; Isabella the Catholic; Queen Isabella (the queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain; they instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (1451-1504))

Liliuokalani; Lydia Kamekeha Paki Liliuokalani (queen of the Hawaiian islands (1838-1917))

Mary Queen of Scots; Mary Stuart (queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567; as a Catholic she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son and fled to England where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I; when Catholic supporters plotted to put her on the English throne she was tried and executed for sedition (1542-1587))

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

royal family; royal house; royal line; royalty (royal persons collectively)

Antonym:

king (a male sovereign; ruler of a kingdom)

Derivation:

queenly (having the rank of or resembling or befitting a queen)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The wife or widow of a king

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

queen regent (a queen who serves as ruler when the king cannot)

queen dowager (the widow of a king)

queen consort (the wife of a reigning king)

Instance hyponyms:

Anne Boleyn; Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I; was executed on a charge of adultery (1507-1536))

Catherine de Medicis (queen of France as the wife of Henry II and regent during the minority of her son Charles IX (1519-1589))

Eleanor of Aquitaine (queen of France as the wife of Louis VII; that marriage was annulled in 1152 and she then married Henry II and became Queen of England (1122-1204))

Esther ((Old Testament) a beautiful Jewess chosen by the king of Persia to be his queen; she stopped a plot to massacre all the Jews in Persia (an event celebrated by Jews as the feast of Purim))

Catherine Howard; Howard (Queen of England as the fifth wife of Henry VIII who was accused of adultery and executed (1520-1542))

Jezebel (wife of Ahab who was king of Israel; according to the Old Testament she was a cruel immoral queen who fostered the worship of Baal and tried to kill Elijah and other prophets of Israel (9th century BC))

Marie Antoinette (queen of France (as wife of Louis XVI) who was unpopular; her extravagance and opposition to reform contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy; she was guillotined along with her husband (1755-1793))

Nefertiti (queen of Egypt and wife of Akhenaton (14th century BC))

Catherine Parr; Parr (Queen of England as the 6th wife of Henry VIII (1512-1548))

Jane Seymour; Seymour (Queen of England as the third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI (1509-1537))

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

royal family; royal house; royal line; royalty (royal persons collectively)

Derivation:

queenly (having the rank of or resembling or befitting a queen)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

the queen of ocean liners

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

personification (a person who represents an abstract quality)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A competitor who holds a preeminent position

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

king; queen; world-beater

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

challenger; competition; competitor; contender; rival (the contestant you hope to defeat)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Offensive term for a homosexual man

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fag; faggot; fagot; fairy; nance; pansy; poof; poove; pouf; queen; queer

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

gay; homo; homophile; homosexual (someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex)

Domain usage:

depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)

Sense 7

Meaning:

One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a queen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

court card; face card; picture card (one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face)

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

deck; deck of cards; pack of cards (a pack of 52 playing cards)

Sense 8

Meaning:

(chess) the most powerful piece

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Derivation:

queen (become a queen)

queen (promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess)

Sense 9

Meaning:

An especially large mole rat and the only member of a colony of naked mole rats to bear offspring which are sired by only a few males

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

queen; queen mole rat

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

naked mole rat (fetal-looking colonial rodent of East Africa; neither mole nor rat; they feed on tubers and have a social structure similar to that of honeybees and termites)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Female cat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

queen; tabby

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

domestic cat; Felis catus; Felis domesticus; house cat (any domesticated member of the genus Felis)

• QUEEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they queen    ... he / she / it queens   
Past simple: queened   
Past participle: queened   
-ing form: queening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "queen" is one way to...):

promote (change a pawn for a better piece by advancing it to the eighth row, or change a checker piece for a more valuable piece by moving it to the row closest to your opponent)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

queen ((chess) the most powerful piece)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become a queen

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

her pawn queened

Hypernyms (to "queen" is one way to...):

promote (be changed for a superior chess or checker piece)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

queen ((chess) the most powerful piece)

 Context examples 

Scientists found that as a queen ages, in her gut microbiome, the levels of two bacterial species groups slowly increase: Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, both known for providing probiotic benefits in mammals including humans.

(Species Shifts in the Honey Bee Microbiome Differ with Age and Hive Role, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

“And, Peggotty,” says I, “I shall be glad to see you, and I'll make you as welcome as a queen.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“There’s an end to all thy beauty,” said the spiteful queen, and went away home.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The queen became so fond of my company, that she could not dine without me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Happy as a queen, the dear!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Quite the queen of the evening!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The jelly is the bee equivalent of mother’s milk: a secretion used to provide nutrition to worker and queen bee larvae.

(Discovery of RNA transfer through royal jelly could aid development of honey bee vaccines, University of Cambridge)

Let a man lay those seven low, and he shall have the prize of the day, from the hands of the fairest queen of beauty, even from the Virgin-Mother herself.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It is true. And yet—! Well! I wish she had been of my own station! What a queen she would have made!”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Miss Price, known only by name to half the people invited, was now to make her first appearance, and must be regarded as the queen of the evening.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)