Word.ws English Dictionary

donjon

/ˈdʌn.d͡ʒən/

donjon noun: the fortified tower and main residence of a motte or early castle; a keep.

Noun

donjon (plural donjons)

  1. The fortified tower and main residence of a motte or early castle; a keep.
    • It was a fortress of no great size, consisting of a donjon, or large and high square tower, surrounded by buildings of inferior height, which were encircled by an inner court-yard.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter VII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page...
    • ‘Start bearding one of these barons in his own castle and next thing you’re being bounced down to the donjon keep.’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 85

Forms of donjon

pluraldonjons

Origin of donjon

A variant of dungeon remodelled on its etymon, Old French donjon.

Questions about donjon

What does donjon mean?
Donjon means the fortified tower and main residence of a motte or early castle; a keep.
What part of speech is donjon?
Donjon is a noun.
How do you pronounce donjon?
Donjon is pronounced /ˈdʌn.d͡ʒən/.
What is the plural of donjon?
The plural of donjon is donjons.

Words near donjon in the dictionary

  1. Donji Kukuruzari
  2. Donji Lapac
  3. Donji Martijanec
  4. Donji Miholjac
  5. Donji Vidovec
  6. donjon
  7. donjons
  8. Donjuan
  9. donjuanesque
  10. donjuanist
  11. Donjuans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: donjon (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-dungeon.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-dungeon.wav.

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