Word.ws English Dictionary

demesne

Syllables: de·mesne/dɪˈmeɪn/

demesne noun: a lord's chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use.

Noun

demesne (plural demesnes)

  1. A lord's chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use.
    • And whanne he sawe that he lete charce her oute of this land and bytoke hit me and alle this land in my demenys
      And when he saw that, he let chase her out of this land, and betook it me, and all this land in my demesnes.1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XVI, Chapter vii leaf 337r
    • The Duke of Argyle led the way in silence to the small postern by which they had been admitted into Richmond Park, so long the favourite residence of Queen Caroline. It was opened by the same half-seen janitor, and they found themselves beyond the precincts of the royal demesne.1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter I, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.]...
  2. A region or area; a domain.
    • Oft of one wide expanse had I been told / That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; […]1816 December 1, John Keats, “[Sonnets.] Sonnet XI. On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […], published 3 March 1817...

demesne meaning in Tamil and Kannada

demesne in Tamil

பண்ணை வீடு

demesne in Kannada

ಸ್ವಾಧೀನ, ಸ್ವಂತ ಸುಪರ್ದು

Forms of demesne

pluraldemesnes
alternative formdemaine
alternative formdemayne
alternative formdemeane

Origin of demesne

From Middle English demayne, from Anglo-Norman demeyne, demene et al., Old French demeine, demaine, demeigne, domaine (“power”) (whence French domaine (“domain”)), a noun use of an adjective, from Latin dominicus (“belonging to a lord or master”), from dominus (“master, proprietor, owner”). See dame. Doublet of domain. The spelling with non-etymological s is partly due to influence from mesne and partly for the purpose of indicating a long vowel, as the s quiesced before a consonant; compare aisle, isle, Carlisle.

Words formed from demesne

Words that rhyme with demesne

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about demesne

What does demesne mean?
Demesne means a lord's chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use.
What is demesne in Tamil?
Demesne in Tamil is பண்ணை வீடு. See Demesne meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is demesne?
Demesne is a noun.
How do you pronounce demesne?
Demesne is pronounced /dɪˈmeɪn/.
What is the plural of demesne?
The plural of demesne is demesnes.

Words near demesne in the dictionary

  1. demesmerization
  2. demesmerize
  3. demesmerized
  4. demesmerizes
  5. demesmerizing
  6. demesne
  7. demesnes
  8. demesnial
  9. demesothelization
  10. demesothelized
  11. demetalated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: demesne (page history and authors); demesne (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demesne (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.

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

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