Word.ws English Dictionary

royal

Syllables: roy·al/ˈɹɔɪ̯.əl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Appalachia/ˈɹɔ.jəl/

royal adjective: of or relating to a monarch or his (or her) family.

Adjective (1)

royal (comparative royaler or royaller, superlative royalest or royallest)

  1. Of or relating to a monarch or his (or her) family.
    • He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again her partner was haled off with a frightened look to the royal circle, […]1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9
    • On the first Friday morning of his kingship he went into the kitchen and called for his royal chef.2011, Marilyn Price, Grandma's Cookies, page 7
  2. Having the air or demeanour of a monarch; illustrious; magnanimous; of more than common size or excellence.
    • How doth that royal Merchant good Anthonio;c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. In large sailing ships, of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails.
    • royal mast; royal sail
    Synonyms:
    imperial, sultanic
  4. Free-for-all, especially involving multiple combatants.
  5. (informal) Used as an intensifier.
    • a royal pain in the neck
    • Whoo! I'll show YOU a royal good time.1991, Interplay Productions, Battle Chess Enhanced, spoken by the Pawn, scene: Pawn takes Queen
  6. Describing a piece which, if captured, results in loss of game.
    • Maharajah and the Sepoys pits a single royal amazon for white against a standard chess army for black.

Noun (1)

royal (plural royals)

  1. (capitalized, informal, often) A royal person; a member of a royal family.
    • Andy noted in RAIL 462: "The Royals are bound to have a great say in the decoration of the train and it speaks volumes for their regard for it that there are so many portraits of previous Royal Trains and items presented on trips. I sense they're extremely fond of it."2022 September 21, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Her Majesty's final journey”, in RAIL, number 966, page 3
  2. (paper) A standard size of printing paper, measuring 25 by 20 inches.
  3. (paper) A standard size of writing paper, measuring 24 by 19 inches.
  4. (dated) The Australian decimal currency intended to replace the pound in 1966; was changed to "dollar" before it was actually circulated.
  5. Any of various lycaenid butterflies.
  6. The fourth tine of an antler's beam.
  7. A stag with twelve points (six on each antler).
  8. In large sailing ships, square sail over the topgallant sail.
    • in ten days after we spoke the Solon, so rapid was his recovery, that, from lying helpless and almost hopeless in his berth, he was at the mast-heId, furling a royal.1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC
  9. An old English gold coin, the rial.
  10. A small mortar.
  11. In auction bridge, a royal spade.
  12. A tuft of beard on the lower lip.
    Synonyms:
    imperial
  13. Bell changes rung on ten bells.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Royal

Royal (plural Royals)

  1. A surname from Old English.
  2. A male given name from English from the surname
    • Royal - he had been his mother's little king. Most of his mates called him "Roy". Perhaps only her and Mrs Natwick had stuck to the christened name, they felt it suited.1974, Patrick White, Five-Twenty, Shorter Novels and Stories, Cape, published 1974, →ISBN, page 173

Noun (2) capitalized: Royal

Royal (plural Royals)

  1. someone connected with Reading Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Royal

Royal (plural Royals)

  1. A male given name from the word "royal".

Noun (3) capitalized: Royal

Royal (plural Royals)

  1. (UK, historical) A member of the first regiment of foot in the British army.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Royal

Royal

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of royal (in capitalised proper nouns, e.g. Royal Navy, Royal Mail)

royal meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

royal in Hindi

of or relating to a monarch or his family
शाही śāhī

royal in Marathi

of or relating to a monarch or his family
शाही śāhī
standard size of printing paper
रॉयल rŏyal
standard size of writing paper
रॉयल rŏyal
intended Australian decimal currency
रॉयल rŏyal

royal in Urdu

of or relating to a monarch or his family
شاہی śahī

royal in Bengali

of or relating to a monarch or his family
রাজকীয় rajokiẏo, শাহী śahi
More languagesFewer languages
royal in Malayalam
രാജകീയ rājakīya
royal in Punjabi
ਸ਼ਾਹੀ
royal in Gujarati
શાહી
royal in Odia
ରାଜକୀଯ଼
royal in Sanskrit
राज्य rājya
royal in Nepali
शाही
royal in Arabic
مَلَكِيّ malakiyy, قَيْصَرِيّ qayṣariyy
royal in Malay
diraja
royal in Indonesian
kerajaan
royal in Persian
شایگان šâygân, شاهانه šâhâne, سلطنتی saltanati
royal in Thai
ราช râat
royal in Vietnamese
hoàng gia, quí tộc

Examples of royal in a sentence

  • The queen bore the royal scepter and crown as she processed into the hall.
  • The oldest of the elves' royal family still conversed in High Elvish.
  • Genetic problems caused by incest are thought to have plagued many royal families in the Middle Ages.

All 40 example sentences with royal

Synonyms of royal

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of royal

Forms of royal

Adjective
comparativeroyaler
comparativeroyaller
superlativeroyalest
superlativeroyallest
alternative abbreviationr.
alternative form (obsolete)roial
alternative form (obsolete)roiall
alternative form (obsolete)royall
alternative form (obsolete)royaler
Noun
pluralroyals
pluralRoyals
Proper noun
pluralRoyals

Plural of royal: royals

Origin of royal

From Middle English royal, from Old French roial (Modern French royal), from Latin rēgālis, from rēx (“king”). Doublet of regal (“befitting a king”), real (“unit of currency”), ariary, and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real, Italian reale, Catalan reial. Displaced native Old English cynelīċ.

A habitational surname, shaped by folk etymology, from places in England, Riehale, Righale, Ryhill and Ryall, Old English ryge (“rye”) + hyll (“hill”), and Royle, rā (“roe”) + hyll (“hill”).

Capitalization of royal.

Words formed from royal

Phrases with royal

117 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with royal

Questions about royal

What does royal mean?
Royal means of or relating to a monarch or his (or her) family.
What is royal in Hindi?
Royal in Hindi is शाही (śāhī). See Royal meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is royal?
Royal can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce royal?
Royal is pronounced /ˈɹɔɪ̯.əl/.

Words near royal in the dictionary

  1. Roy Bridge
  2. Roy G. Biv
  3. Roy Rogers
  4. Roy Rogerses
  5. Roya
  6. royal
  7. royal abundance
  8. Royal Air Force
  9. royal angelfish
  10. Royal Ann
  11. Royal Anne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: royal (page history and authors); Royal (page history and authors); royal (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); royal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); royal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); royal (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-royal.wav, En-us-royal.ogg.

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