Gloriana
name ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Sobriquet for Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Queen of England and Ireland.
"In “The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth” (The Bodley Head; 16s.), Mr. Chamberlin deals very faithfully with a scandal that has nothing to do with sixteenth-century gossip about the Queen’s morals. It is a purely academic outrage: Froude’s Bowdlerisations of Gloriana’s good things, which the historian paraphrased loosely when he should have transcribed them accurately."
- 2 A female given name.
"After Mr. Smith’s decease, she m. for a 2d husband, and as his 2d wife, Dr. George Muirson of Setauket, L. I. (son of Rev. George Muirson of Hempstead, L. I., and Gloriana Smith, dau. of Col. William Smith)."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"In “The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth” (The Bodley Head; 16s.), Mr. Chamberlin deals very faithfully with a scandal that has nothing to do with sixteenth-century gossip about the Queen’s morals. It is a purely academic outrage: Froude’s Bowdlerisations of Gloriana’s good things, which the historian paraphrased loosely when he should have transcribed them accurately."
Etymology
Coined by English poet Edmund Spenser to represent Elizabeth I in his poem The Faerie Queene (1590), from Latin glōria (“glory”) + -āna, feminine of -ānus (“of or pertaining to”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.