royal

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Of or about or indicative of or issued or performed by a king or queen or other monarch.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

royuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɔɪəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

Of or relating to or indicative of or issued or performed by a king or queen or other monarch
Of or relating to a monarch or his (or her) family.
Having the air or demeanour of a monarch; illustrious; magnanimous; of more than common size or excellence.
nautical
In large sailing ships, of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails.
informal
Used as an intensifier.

noun

The fourth tine of an antler's beam.
A stag with twelve points (six on each antler).
An old English gold coin, the rial.
Stag with antlers of 12 or more branches
Any of various lycaenid butterflies.
A tuft of beard on the lower lip.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of or relating to or indicative of or issued or performed by a king or queen or other monarch

Used this way, royal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use royal

“The country celebrated a royal wedding with great pomp and circumstance.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Large

royal palaceroyal authority

Other combinations

royal powerroyal airroyal army

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

royal air forcenounCompound term
The airforce of Great Britain.
royal bluenounCompound term
A shade of blue tinged with purple.
royal bracenounCompound term
A brace to secure the royal mast.
royal canadian mounted policenounCompound term
The federal police force of Canada.
royal casinonounCompound term
A form of casino in which face cards have extra point values.
royal charternounCompound term
A charter granted by the sovereign (especially in Great Britain).

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

like royaltyadverbRelated term
In a royal manner.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.