queen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A woman who rules a country, usually because she was born into a royal family.

   The queen waved to the crowd from the balcony.

2. 2
   noun

   The wife of a king.

   The king and queen attended the ceremony together.

3. 3
   noun

   A female insect, such as a bee or ant, that lays eggs for the whole colony.

   The queen bee lays thousands of eggs each day.

4. 4
   noun

   A powerful piece in the game of chess.

   She captured my queen and won the game.

Common collocations

• become a queen Verb + noun
• meet the queen Verb + noun
• play a queen Verb + noun
• beloved queen Adjective + noun
• former queen Adjective + noun
• reigning queen Adjective + noun
• crown a queen Verb + noun

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 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 que…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images