Definition of KING

king

Plural: kings

Noun

  • a male sovereign; ruler of a kingdom
  • a competitor who holds a preeminent position
  • a very wealthy or powerful businessman
  • preeminence in a particular category or group or field
    • "the lion is the king of beasts"
  • United States woman tennis player (born in 1943)
  • United States guitar player and singer of the blues (born in 1925)
  • United States charismatic civil rights leader and Baptist minister who campaigned against the segregation of Blacks (1929-1968)
  • a checker that has been moved to the opponent's first row where it is promoted to a piece that is free to move either forward or backward
  • one of the four playing cards in a deck bearing the picture of a king
  • (chess) the weakest but the most important piece
  • A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.
  • The monarch with the most power and authority in a monarchy, regardless of sex.
  • A powerful or majorly influential person; someone who holds the preeminent position.
  • Something that has a preeminent position.
  • A component of certain games.
  • The principal chess piece, that players seek to threaten with unavoidable capture to result in a victory by checkmate. It is often the tallest piece, with a symbolic crown with a cross at the top.
  • A component of certain games.
  • A playing card with the letter "K" and the image of a king on it, the thirteenth card in a given suit.
  • A component of certain games.
  • A checker (a piece of checkers/draughts) that reached the farthest row forward, thus becoming crowned (either by turning it upside-down, or by stacking another checker on it) and gaining more freedom of movement.
  • A component of certain games.
  • The central pin or skittle in bowling games.
  • A king skin.
  • A male dragonfly; a drake.
  • A king-sized bed.
  • A vertex in a directed graph which can reach every other vertex via a path with a length of at most 2.
  • Alternative form of qing (“Chinese musical instrument”).

Verb

Verb Forms: kinged, kinging, kings

  • To rule as a monarch; to become a king.
  • To crown king, to make (a person) king.
  • To rule over as king.
  • To perform the duties of a king.
  • To assume or pretend preeminence (over); to lord it over.
  • To promote a piece of draughts/checkers that has traversed the board to the opposite side, that piece subsequently being permitted to move backwards as well as forwards.
  • To dress and perform as a drag king.

Examples

  • Charles the third became the new king of England from 2022.
  • Henry VIII was the king of England from 1509 to 1547.
  • Howard Stern styled himself as the "king of all media".
  • In times of financial panic, cash is king.
  • Oi mate, have you got kings?
  • With ’QUEEN’ already on the board, he aimed to KING his pawn to victory.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez.
Cognate with Scots keeng (“king”), North Frisian köning (“king”), West Frisian kening (“king”), Dutch koning (“king”), Low German Koning, Köning (“king”), German König (“king”), Danish konge (“king”), Norwegian konge, Swedish konung, kung (“king”), Icelandic konungur, kóngur (“king”), Polish ksiądz (“priest”), Russian князь (knjazʹ, “prince”), Old Church Slavonic кънѧѕь (kŭnędzĭ), Romanian chinez, Finnish kuningas (“king”), Estonian kuningas, Ingrian kunigas, Karelian kuninkas, Livvi kuńingas, Ludian kuńingas, Veps kuningaz, Võro kuning and Votic kunikaz. Eclipsed non-native Middle English roy (“king”) (Early Modern English roy), borrowed from Old French roi, rei, rai (“king”).
The verb is inherited from Middle English kyngen, *kingen (“To perform the duties of a king”), itself from the noun king, kyng.

Synonyms

B. B. King, baron, big businessman, Billie Jean King, Billie Jean Moffitt King, business leader, magnate, male monarch, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Jr., mogul, power, queen, Rex, Riley B King, top executive, tycoon, world-beater, roy

Antonyms

female monarch, queen

Scrabble Score: 9

king: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
king: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
king: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 11

king: valid Words With Friends Word