den
/ˈdɪ̟n/UK/ˈdɛn/
den noun: a small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment. Also the abbreviation of denier.
Noun
den (plural dens)
- A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
- a den of robbers
- Daniel was put into the lions’ den.
- A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
- a den of vice
- an opium den; a gambling den
- A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
- Near-synonyms: family room, sunroom, Florida room, Arizona room, rec room, playroom
- Synonyms:
- family room, sunroom, Florida room, Arizona room, rec room, playroom
- Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”).
- Our little girls love using bedsheets and other stuff around the house to make dens in the living room and pretending they're on adventures.
- Synonyms:
- fort
- A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
- I have made several visits of late to the Den of Rubislaw1806, Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., including many of his Original Letters
- A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.
Verb
den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)
- To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
- Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.
- Although present in virtually all habitats, it preferred to den in caves, so its distribution, especially in cold, northern areas, may have been limited to limestone and other rocky regions where caves form.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 203
- “Denning” – behaviour around making dens – has changed and bears are swimming long distances, but, says Aars, there is still enough sea ice in the spring for the bears to hunt successfully.2023 August 30, Patrick Greenfield, “Why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Proper noun (1) capitalized: DEN
DEN
- Abbreviation of Denver.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Den
Den
- A diminutive of the male given name Dennis.
Also used as
den is also the abbreviation of denier.
den is also the alternative form of dene.
den is also the pronunciation spelling of then.
den meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tagalog
den in Hindi
- home of certain animals
- मांद mānd
den in Urdu
- home of certain animals
- اَڈَّہ aḍḍa, غار ġār
den in Bengali
- ডেন
den in Tagalog
- home of certain animals
- kubil
More languagesFewer languages
- den in Arabic
- عَرِين ʕarīn, جُحْر juḥr, عُشّ ʕušš
- den in Indonesian
- liang, ruang santai
- den in Vietnamese
- hang ổ, hang
- den in Myanmar
- သားရဲတွင်း sa:rai:twang:
Examples of den in a sentence
- As the head of the boarding school, he serves as den mother for all the new students.
- The place felt more like a crime lord's den than anything else.
- The fox dragged its kill back to its den.
Synonyms of den
- lair
- luster
- Wiktionary appendix of animal terms, including their homes
- family room
- sunroom
- Florida room
- Arizona room
- rec room
- playroom
- fort
Forms of den
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dens |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dens |
| present participle | denning |
| past participle | denned |
| past | denned |
Origin of den
From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).
From Old French denier, from Latin denarius.
Shortening.
Words formed from den
Phrases with den
- Den Bosch
- Den Helder
- lions' den
- den mothers
- dragons' den
- Van Den Berghe
- van den Heever
- Van Den Berghes
- Alphen aan den Rijn
- Capelle aan den IJssel
- beards the lion in his den
- bearded the lion in his den
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with den
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about den
- What does den mean?
- Den means a small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
- What is den in Hindi?
- Den in Hindi is मांद (mānd). See Den meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is den?
- Den can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce den?
- Den is pronounced /ˈdɛn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of den?
- The plural of den is dens.
Words near den in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: den (page history and authors); DEN (page history and authors); Den (page history and authors); den (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-den.ogg.
Cite this entry: “den.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/den. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.