Queenly
adj, adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Having the status, rank or qualities of a queen; regal.
"So Maggie, glad of anything that would soothe her mother, and cheer their long day together, consented to the vain decoration, and showed a queenly head above her old frocks, steadily refusing, however, to look at herself in the glass."
- 2 Resembling a queen (a typically feminine gay man); queenish.
"The Pet Shop Boys are yet another synth-pop duo, albeit one that is not quite out of the closet. […] In past interviews, however, they [the Pet Shop Boys] have referred to their sound as "specifically gay disco," and their lyrics have that certain queenly something that lead singer Neil Tennant sings with an adorable sibilance."
- 1 having the rank of or resembling or befitting a queen wordnet
- 1 In a queenly manner; regally.
Example
More examples"I may add that she was a woman of great beauty, and that even now, when she has been married for upwards of thirty years, she is still of a striking and queenly appearance."
Etymology
From Middle English queenly, quenly, from Old English cwēnlīċ, equivalent to queen + -ly.
From queen + -ly.
More for "queenly"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.