Word.ws English Dictionary

crone

/kɹəʊn/US/kɹoʊn/

crone noun: an old woman.

Noun (1)

crone (plural crones)

  1. (archaic) An old woman.
    • But still the crone was constant to her note.1700, [John] Dryden, “The Wife of Bathe’s Tale. As it was Written by Geffrey Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  2. An archetypal figure, a wise woman.
    • “And what is your name, crispy, old, wizened crone?” “Oh, my name's Helen.” “Hel-- Oh, just Helen. That's it. Just Helen?” “Helen the Magic Woman.” “And you can help me rid myself of this disgusting hex?” “Yes.”2023 August 17, Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh, “Hybrid Creatures” (7:01 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 7, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou)
  3. An ugly, evil-looking, or frightening old woman; a hag.
    • With black unseeing eyes the old woman, the crone, stares at him and through him. Over and over she mutters a word that he cannot quite catch, something like Toomderoom.2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Six”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 36
    • “Let's welcome the most beautiful girl I know and I've ever met. My good lady wife Nadja. Come on.” “Oh, she's right here. I've got her.” “I'm here.” “Quiet, crone! Hello, everyone. Thank you all so much for coming.”2023 July 20, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Pride Parade” (22:07 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 3, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou)
  4. (obsolete) An old ewe.
    • In traveling homeward, buy forty good crones, and fat up the bodies of those seely bones1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […]...
  5. (obsolete) An old man, especially one who talks and acts like an old woman.
    • The old crone [a negro man] lived in a hovel, in the midst of a small patch of potatoes and Indian corn, which his master had given him on setting him free.1822 May 21, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Haunted House”, in Bracebridge Hall, or The Humourists. A Medley. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC...
    • A few old battered crones of office.1844, Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby

Noun (2) capitalized: Crone

Crone (plural Crones)

  1. One of the triune goddesses of the Lady in Wicca alongside the Mother and Maiden, representing an old woman.
    • […] different stages of life as represented by our Lady as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, as well as our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.2002, A.J. Drew, Wicca for Couples: Making Magick Together, page 90
    • The Lady is often thought of as having three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.2004, Aurora Greenbough, Cathy Jewell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spells and Spellcraft, page 9

crone meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

crone in Tamil

முதுபெரும் கிழவி, மூதாட்டி

crone in Malayalam

പടുകിഴവി

crone in Kannada

ಹಣ್ಣುಹಣ್ಣು ಮುದುಕ

Examples of crone in a sentence

  • An archaic term, really, but I like it. crone: A menopausal or post-menopausal Wiccan.
  • Male characters showing up as young heroes-in-the-making or sage old doddards, and female characters being maidens, matrons or crones?
  • An elder Wiccan man, a male crone.

All 10 example sentences with crone

Synonyms of crone

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms of crone

Forms of crone

pluralcrones
pluralCrones

Plural of crone: crones

Origin of crone

From Middle English crone, from Anglo-Norman carogne (compare central Old French charogne (a term of abuse, literally “carrion, carcass, old sheep, hag”), whence modern French charogne). Doublet of carrion.

Words formed from crone

Words that rhyme with crone

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about crone

What does crone mean?
Crone means an old woman.
What is crone in Tamil?
Crone in Tamil is முதுபெரும் கிழவி, மூதாட்டி. See Crone meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is crone?
Crone is a noun.
How do you pronounce crone?
Crone is pronounced /kɹoʊn/ (US).
What is the plural of crone?
The plural of crone is crones.

Words near crone in the dictionary

  1. cronch
  2. cronched
  3. cronches
  4. cronching
  5. Crondall
  6. crone
  7. Crone's solution
  8. cronehood
  9. cronel
  10. cronelike
  11. cronell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crone (page history and authors); Crone (page history and authors); crone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crone (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crone.wav.

Cite this entry: “crone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.