dungeon
/ˈdʌn.d͡ʒən/
dungeon noun: an underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
Noun
dungeon (plural dungeons)
- An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
- Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- They could still hear him for some time shouting out things about having the law of them while being bounced down to the deepest dungeon of the castle.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 84
- The low area between two drumlins.
- The main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon.
- A shrewd person.
- An area inhabited by enemies, containing story objectives, treasure, and bosses.
- A room dedicated to sadomasochistic sexual activity.
Verb
dungeon (third-person singular simple present dungeons, present participle dungeoning, simple past and past participle dungeoned)
- To imprison in a dungeon.
- Of every act of severity, of every bold violation of the constitution, of every bill for dungeoning and gagging the people, of every tax, of every loan, of all that set frugality at defiance, and that mocked at mercy, these men had been either the authors or the most strenuous supporters […]1830, William Cobbett, History of the Regency and Reign of King George the Fourth
dungeon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
dungeon in Hindi
- underground prison or vault
- काल कोठरी kāl koṭhrī, भाकसी bhāksī, कारागार kārāgār, अंधकुप andhkup, क़ैदख़ाना qaidxānā, कैदखाना kaidkhānā
dungeon in Tamil
- நிலவறை, நிலவறைச் சிறை
dungeon in Urdu
- محبس, قید خانہ, تنگ و تاریک کوٹھری
dungeon in Malayalam
- underground prison, oubliette, cell
- ഇരുട്ടറ, ഭൂഗർഭതടവറ, ഭൂഗർഭക്കല്ലറ, തുറുങ്ക്, കല്ലറ, കാരാലയം
More languagesFewer languages
- dungeon in Kannada
- ನೆಲಮಾಳಿಗೆ, ಕತ್ತಲೆಕೋಣೆ
- dungeon in Gujarati
- ભોંયરું bhõyarũ
- dungeon in Tagalog
- bartolina
- dungeon in Arabic
- زِنْزَانَة zinzāna, دَيْمَاس daymās
- dungeon in Indonesian
- penjara bawah tanah, terungku
- dungeon in Persian
- سیاهچال siyâhčâl, گریچه goriče
- dungeon in Vietnamese
- tầng hâm
Examples of dungeon in a sentence
- The wicked prince was shut up in the castle dungeon.
- The dungeon fern has a passive attack that releases spores.
- Sure enough, the text also teases the return of the weapon in an upcoming dungeon.
Forms of dungeon
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dungeons |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | dungeons |
| present participle | dungeoning |
| past participle | dungeoned |
| past | dungeoned |
Origin of dungeon
From Middle English dongeoun (“keep of a castle; dungeon; abyss, cave, den; whirlpool”), from Anglo-Norman donjun (“keep of a castle; keep used as a prison; dungeon”) and continental Old French donjon (“keep of a castle”), from Vulgar Latin *dominiōnem, seemingly derived from Latin dominus (“master, lord”) perhaps via some figurative sense like “dominant building”. Doublet of donjon. The sense of “prison (associated with a castle)”, first attested in Anglo-Norman (13th c.) and apparently never in continental Old French, likely developed in combination with Old English dung (“underground prison cell”), whence Middle English donge (“pit, abyss”, senses that are also attested for Middle English dongeoun). The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.
Words formed from dungeon
Phrases with dungeon
Questions about dungeon
- What does dungeon mean?
- Dungeon means an underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
- What is dungeon in Hindi?
- Dungeon in Hindi is काल कोठरी (kāl koṭhrī), भाकसी (bhāksī), कारागार (kārāgār). See Dungeon meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dungeon?
- Dungeon can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce dungeon?
- Dungeon is pronounced /ˈdʌn.d͡ʒən/.
- What is the plural of dungeon?
- The plural of dungeon is dungeons.
Words near dungeon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dungeon (page history and authors); dungeon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dungeon (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dungeon (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); dungeon (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ભોંયરું (Gujarati) (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-dungeon.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-dungeon.wav.
Cite this entry: “dungeon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dungeon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.