plural queens
Definition of queen
(Entry 1 of 2)
1a
: the wife or widow of a king
b
: the wife or widow of a tribal chief
2a
: a female monarch
b
: a female chieftain
3a
: 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
: drag queen
queen
verb
queened; queening; queens
Definition of queen (Entry 2 of 2)
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
Test Your Vocabulary
Eponyms: Words Named After People
-
- What is the best definition of boycott?

Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
TAKE THE QUIZ
A daily challenge for crossword fanatics.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share queen
Time Traveler for queen
The first known use of queen was before the 12th century
See more words from the same century