harem

noun har·em \ ˈher-əm \

Examples: harem in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of harem

1 a : a usually secluded house or part of a house allotted to women in some Muslim households

b : the wives, concubines, female relatives, and servants occupying a harem

2 informal : a group of women associated with one man

the pop star and his harem

3 : a group of females associated with one male —used of polygamous animals

Researchers who study elk have determined that the males who possess the largest harems of females not only sport the largest racks of antlers, but also the most symmetrical ones.
—Natalie Angier

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Examples of harem in a Sentence

the pop star and his harem

Recent Examples of harem from the Web

So there is this fascination with the idea of an Oriental harem.

— david lyman, Cincinnati.com, "How Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'The King and I' makes sense today," 6 Apr. 2018
Hijras figure prominently in India’s Muslim history as well, serving as the sexless watchdogs of Mughal harems.

— New York Times, "The Peculiar Position of India’s Third Gender," 17 Feb. 2018
Into this came crashing Stormy Daniels: a professional beauty right out of the pages of a glossy lad magazine who must have seemed to Trump a perfect addition to his harem of the hush-able.

— rhonda garelick, The Cut, "Stormy Daniels Is the Anti-Trump," 14 Mar. 2018
Poiret’s aesthetic was more aligned with the languor of a fictional harem.

— Vogue, "Poiret Is Being Revived a Century After Its Heyday—Will It Matter to Fashion Audiences in 2018?," 30 Jan. 2018
Harding, who wasn't involved in the recent expedition, has long been fascinated by the species, which live in harems with one territorial male and around eight females.

— National Geographic, "Watch Monkeys Swim for Their Supper in Rare Video," 11 Nov. 2016
Both Nahri and Ali become involved in court politics, tribal politics, harem politics and of course spirit politics.

— tom shippey, WSJ, "Review: The Best Science Fiction," 8 Dec. 2017
Likewise, the Arabian dance is no longer the skin-showing seduction scene of past productions but a comedic vignette of a husband under pressure from his four-woman harem.

— laura bleiberg, latimes.com, "ABT's 'Nutcracker,' a new classic worth watching over and over (and over)," 11 Dec. 2017
At some point, a smaller riad was annexed to the larger one and used as a harem.

— sarah medford, WSJ, "An Exclusive Tour of a French Iconoclast’s Moroccan Getaway," 12 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'harem.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In a Muslim household, a harem is a part of a house set apart for women and from which nonfamily males are excluded. Harems existed in the pre-Islamic civilizations of the Middle East and in the courts of pre-Islamic Assyria, Persia, and Egypt. The harem was also found in the courts of China and Japan as well as in India and southeast Asia. Large harems for wives and concubines were common in wealthy Arab households into the 20th century; the great harem of the Turkish sultans (15th–20th century) contained several hundred women, guarded by eunuchs. By the later 20th century, the full harem system remained only among conservative elements of Arab society.