女王
Meaning in Englishqueen
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
女王 (joou) means "queen": a woman who holds the highest position of authority within a sovereign system or is recognized as the dominant female in a social group; the term denotes official rulership or a leading female role in narratives, titles, and social descriptions.
Main meanings
- 1. Sovereign female ruler or the title used for a queen in historical, political, or fictional monarchies.
- 2. The reproductively dominant or leading female in animal and insect societies (e.g., a colony's primary breeder).
- 3. The chess or game piece equivalent to a queen when translating materials into Japanese.
- 4. A figurative label for a top female performer, influencer, or person of dominant status in entertainment, fashion, or slang.
How to use it
Found in formal writing (news, history, academic biology) when naming actual queens or discussing hierarchy, as well as in fiction, manga, and everyday speech for metaphorical uses; register varies—scientific and historical uses are formal, while figurative or pop-culture uses may be casual, and honorific forms (e.g., 女王様 (joousama)) increase politeness.
Variants and close terms
- 女帝 (jotei) — empress (often used for a reigning empress)
- 王女 (oujo) — princess
- 女王様 (joousama) — queen (honorific)
- クイーン (kuīn) — queen (loanword from English, common in pop culture)
- 王 (ou) — king (antonym)
Composition
- 女 — "woman, female" (kun'yomi onna, on'yomi jo).
- 王 — "king, ruler" (on'yomi ō).
Etymology
女王 reflects a Sino-Japanese formation using on'yomi readings: jo + ō, taken from Classical Chinese morphemes for "woman" and "king," adapted into Japanese pronunciation and orthography as 女王 (joou).
Origin
The lexical concept entered Japanese via Chinese-influenced vocabulary and translation practices; historically the native Japanese court used different terms for empresses and consorts, so 女王 became common in translations of foreign monarchies, biological descriptions, and later in literature and popular media to label queens and dominant females.
Word class
noun (名詞)