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queen

/kwiːn/noun, verb

queen is spelled Q-U-E-E-N: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 72 times per million words in written English, the 1,457th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, queen means “The wife, consort, or widow of a king” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of queen is queens.

How many letters and syllables are in queen?

Letters5: Q-U-E-E-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing72 times per million words; the 1,457th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is queen?

Queen appears 72 times per million words in written English, the 1,457th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce queen?

  • /kwiːn/
  • [kʰw̥iːn]

Queen has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-queen.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with queen

Sounds like: quean (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of queen

  • queens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • queening participle, present
  • queened participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does queen mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The wife, consort, or widow of a king.

    The divorced king was looking for a new queen.

  2. 2

    A female monarch.

  3. 3

    The Virgin Mary (especially in formulations such as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory).

  4. 4

    An excellent woman.

  5. 5

    A woman pre-eminent in a particular group or field.

  6. 6

    slangAn attractive woman; a female partner in a romantic relationship.

  7. 7

    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.

    My mother was queen of the St. Patrick's Day parade when she was 19.

  8. 8

    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.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo act the part of a queen; to behave imperiously; to queen it.

  2. 2

    To make a queen or (figuratively) to give the status of a queen.

  3. 3

    To promote a pawn to a queen.

  4. 4

    To be the queen bee of a colony.

  5. 5

    To provide with a new queen bee.

  6. 6

    slangTo sit on a person’s face to receive oral sex, typically while straddling the person’s head.

noun

as Queen
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of queen (“consort or widow of a king”).

  2. 2

    Alternative letter-case form of queen (“female monarch”).

  3. 3

    A title used before the personal name of a queen.

    Queen Elizabeth II

  4. 4

    radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter Q.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate queen?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of queen: Q.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Queen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchreine (female monarch), dame (chess piece), folle (slang: male homosexual), damer (chess: to convert a pawn into a queen)
GermanKönigin, Kinigin (female monarch), Dame (chess piece), Tunte (slang: male homosexual)
Portugueserainha (female monarch), dama (chess piece), promover (chess: to convert a pawn into a queen), soberana (powerful or forceful female person), coroar (rainha) (to make a queen)
Spanishreina (female monarch), dama (chess piece), coronar (chess: to convert a pawn into a queen)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does queen come from?

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”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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