Word.ws English Dictionary

crown of thorns

/ˌkɹaʊn əv ˈθɔːnz/

crown of thorns noun: the crown made of a thorny plant that Christ was forced to wear before his Crucifixion, in mocking reference to his alleged status as ‘king of the Jews’, or a representation of this. Also the ellipsis of crown-of-thorns starfish.

Noun

crown of thorns (plural crowns of thorns)

  1. The crown made of a thorny plant that Christ was forced to wear before his Crucifixion, in mocking reference to his alleged status as ‘king of the Jews’, or a representation of this.
  2. A spiny Mediterranean tree, Ziziphus spina-christi.
  3. A spiny spurge, Euphorbia milii, native to Madagascar.
  4. The plant Koeberlinia spinosa.
  5. A woodworking technique, used in tramp art, in which interlocking pieces are notched to intersect at right angles and form joints and self-supporting objects.

Also used as

crown of thorns is also the ellipsis of crown-of-thorns starfish.

crown of thorns meaning in Tagalog and Vietnamese

crown of thorns in Tagalog

crown made of a thorny plant that Christ was forced to wear
koronang tinik

crown of thorns in Vietnamese

crown made of a thorny plant that Christ was forced to wear
mão gai

Forms of crown of thorns

pluralcrowns of thorns

Origin of crown of thorns

Calque of Latin spinea corona, itself a calque of Hellenistic Ancient Greek ἀκάνθινος στέφανος (akánthinos stéphanos).

Questions about crown of thorns

What does crown of thorns mean?
Crown of thorns means the crown made of a thorny plant that Christ was forced to wear before his Crucifixion, in mocking reference to his alleged status as ‘king of the Jews’, or a representation of this.
What is crown of thorns in Tagalog?
Crown of thorns in Tagalog is koronang tinik. See Crown of thorns meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is crown of thorns?
Crown of thorns is a noun.
How do you pronounce crown of thorns?
Crown of thorns is pronounced /ˌkɹaʊn əv ˈθɔːnz/ (UK).
What is the plural of crown of thorns?
The plural of crown of thorns is crowns of thorns.

Words near crown of thorns in the dictionary

  1. crown mammals
  2. crown molding
  3. crown moldings
  4. crown of aberration
  5. Crown of Aragon
  6. crown of thorns
  7. crown over
  8. crown piece
  9. crown pieces
  10. crown pigeon
  11. crown pigeons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crown of thorns (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-crown of thorns.wav.

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