dragon

Syllables: drag·on/ˈdɹæɡən/

dragon noun: in European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.

Image: Gastón Cuello, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

dragon (plural dragons)

In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.
- Medea for the loue of Iaſon, taught him how to tame the fire breathing braſſ feeted Bulls, and kill the mighty dragon that kept the golden fleece[.]1632, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cryps, page 548
- But as every well-brought-up prince was expected to kill a dragon, and rescue a princess, the dragons grew fewer and fewer till it was often quite hard for a princess to find a dragon to be rescued from.c. 1900, Edith Nesbit, The Last of the Dragons
Synonyms:

drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy, dwaggy
In Eastern Asian mythologies, a large, snake-like monster with the eyes of a hare, the horns of a stag and the claws of a tiger, usually beneficent.
- These tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely with those of another.1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter XIII, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
Synonyms:

drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy, dwaggy
(obsolete) A very large snake; a python.
Any of various agamid lizards of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona.
A Komodo dragon.
A sea dragon.
(capitalized, often, with-definite-article) The constellation Draco.
- My father compounded with my mother vnder the Dragons taile, and my nativity was vnder Vrsa Maior.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
(derogatory) A fierce and unpleasant woman.
- She’s a bit of a dragon.
Synonyms:

dragon lady, harridan, battle axe, bitch, brim, brimstone, cat, cockatrice, crow, faggot
(UK, derogatory, rare, slang) An unattractive woman.
(capitalized, often, with-definite-article) The (historical) Chinese empire or the People's Republic of China.
- Napoleon already warned of the awakening of the Dragon.
(figuratively) Something very formidable or dangerous.
A class of playing tiles consisting of three types: white dragons, green dragons, and red dragons.

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A luminous exhalation from marshy ground, seeming to move through the air like a winged serpent.
(historical) A type of musket with a short, large-calibre barrel with a flared muzzle, often hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt.
- our dragoons were so denominated because they were armed with dragons, that is, with short muskets, which spouted fire like dragons, and had the head of a dragon wrought upon their muzzle1886, Charles Gould, Mythical Monsters
Synonyms:

dragoon
(rare) A background process similar to a daemon.
- Daemons and Dragons. The print spooler is an example of a DAEMON, a program that executes in the background and provides a service […] Strictly speaking, a dragon is a daemon that is not invoked explicitly but is always there, waiting in the background […]1995, Harley Hahn, The UNIX Companion, page 420
- Many of the postmaster functions are actually handled by computer software such as dragons and mailer daemons.2018, J. K. Petersen, Fiber Optics Illustrated Dictionary
A variety of carrier pigeon.

Noun (2)

dragon (plural dragons)

(slang) Synonym of drag queen.
- May 2017 Michael Connelly shares excerpt from The Late Show
  Ballard felt her phone vibrate in her hand and turned away from the nurse. She saw a return text from Mendez. She read his answer out loud to Jenkins. “‘Ramona Ramone, dragon. Real name Ramón Gutierrez. Had him in here a couple weeks back....
- October 2017 Drag Star VIZIN is back with new single Blasting News
  My favorite part was probably the ‘de-dragging.’ Taking the Dragon off (that’s what I call her) is always my favorite. In all honesty, the entire experience was amazing and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Being felt up by...
Synonyms:

drag queen

Proper noun capitalized: Dragon

Dragon

The fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
Synonym of Devil.

Synonyms:

Great Red Dragon, Aduwallah, Adversary, Al-Shaytaan, Antichrist, archfiend, Ash-Shaytan, Azazel, Beast, Beelzebub

dragon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dragon in Hindi

mythical creature: अज़दहा azdahā, अजदहा ajdahā, अजदाह ajdāh

dragon in Tamil

mythical creature: டிராகன் ṭirākaṉ

dragon in Marathi

mythical creature: ड्रॅगन ḍrĕgan
nickname for the Chinese empire and the People's Republic of China: ड्रॅगन ḍrĕgan

dragon in Urdu

mythical creature: اَژْدَہا aźdahā, اَزْدَہا azdahā

More languagesFewer languages

dragon in Bengali: আজদাহা ajdaha
dragon in Telugu: డ్రాగన్, డ్ర్యాగన్
dragon in Malayalam: വ്യാളി vyāḷi
dragon in Kannada: ಡ್ರ್ಯಾಗನ್, ಡ್ರಾಗನ್
dragon in Punjabi: ਡ੍ਰੈਗਨ, ਅਜਗਰ, ਡਰੱਗਨ
dragon in Gujarati: ડ્રેગન, ડ્રાગન, ડ્રૅગન
dragon in Odia: ଡ୍ରାଗନ୍, ଡ୍ରାଗନ
dragon in Sanskrit: उरङ्ग uraṅga, नाग nāga
dragon in Nepali: ड्र्यागन, ड्रागन, ड्रेगन
dragon in Pashto: ښامار x̌āmãr, اژدها aždahã, اژدهار aždahãr, اژدر aždár
dragon in Tagalog: dragon
dragon in Arabic: تِنِّين tinnīn
dragon in Malay: naga
dragon in Indonesian: naga
dragon in Persian: اَژْدَهَا aždahâ, اِژْدِهَا eždehâ, اَژْدَر aždar
dragon in Thai: มังกร mang-gɔɔn, นาค nâak, อุรค
dragon in Vietnamese: rồng
dragon in Myanmar: နဂါး na.ga:
Dzongkha: འབྲུག 'brug

Examples of dragon in a sentence

Before daylight, when the dragon flew home to sleep, he had burned up the hall and even the throne of the Geatish king.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 41:
They pitched the dragon / over the cliff-top, let tide's flow / and backwash take the treasure-minder.1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 98:

All 40 example sentences with dragon

Synonyms of dragon

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All synonyms of dragon

Forms of dragon

plural	dragons
alternative childish pronunciation-spelling	dwagon

Plural of dragon: dragons

Origin of dragon

From Middle English dragoun, borrowed from Old French dragon, from Latin dracō(n), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon”), probably from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to see clearly”). Displaced Old English wyrm, whence modern worm. Mostly displaced Old English draca (whence modern drake)—from the same Latin source, as are Draco, Dracon, dracone, and dragoon.

Alteration from drag queen.

Phrases with dragon

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Words that rhyme with dragon

Questions about dragon

What does dragon mean?: Dragon means in European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.
What is dragon in Hindi?: Dragon in Hindi is अज़दहा (azdahā), अजदहा (ajdahā), अजदाह (ajdāh). See Dragon meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dragon in a sentence?: Before daylight, when the dragon flew home to sleep, he had burned up the hall and even the throne of the Geatish king.
What part of speech is dragon?: Dragon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dragon?: Dragon is pronounced /ˈdɹæɡən/.
What is the plural of dragon?: The plural of dragon is dragons.

Words near dragon in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dragon (page history and authors); Dragon (page history and authors); dragon (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); വ്യാളി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); dragon (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dragon (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dragon (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dragon (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dragon (Nepali, 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dragon.ogg, en-au-dragon.ogg.

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