Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fortified main tower of a castle; a keep.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The inner tower, keep, or stronghold of a castle. See cut under castle. It is simply another spelling of
dungeon , to which it is preferred in the sense of the definition by some writers, on account of the special idea of prison now associated with dungeon.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The chief tower, also called the
keep ; a massive tower in ancient castles, forming the strongest part of the fortifications. SeeIllust. of castle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the main tower within the walls of a medieval castle or fortress
Etymologies
- From Old French donjon. (Wiktionary)
- Variant of dungeon. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It held meetings in our big vault, which they called the donjon keep, and, naturally, when one of them was going on, boys were scarcer around the office than hen's teeth.”
“Although the donjon was a fundamental element of castle design from Norman times, Greenwich had no fortifications, no moat, and no visible sense of being a castle.”
“After passing the donjon, which is situated at the extreme end of the left wing, we went to the back of the chateau.”
“Not far from the donjon is the Decorated church of Saint Lawrence, where the usual late Gothic dies off into _Renaissance_ at the west end.”
“The central tower, commonly called the donjon, was the castle's last line of defense.”
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com
“It had a "donjon," or keep, which was generally occupied by the baron as”
“donjon" of great antiquity, crenelated, with towers at each corner and the whole construction forming an admirable specimen of Hispano-Flemish architecture.”
“After Eric posed for a few seconds on the steps of the chapel and then inexplicably flew off to the top of the donjon in a huff, Luc motioned for us to follow him into the castle.”
“I watched Eric disappear over the edge of the donjon, surprised to see his reflection in the water.”
“He stood halfway between us and the main donjon, wearing orange sweatpants, a matching hoodie, blue-tinted sunglasses, and those same Onmyodo shoes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘donjon’.
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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The Innocents Abroad
Words rounded up while reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.
rakish, excursionist, bowelless, pilgrimizing, melodeon, woebegone, abaft, sextant, veriest, behindhand, stanchion, avast and 188 more...
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1906 Railway Cipher Code
Terms from the Standard Cipher Code of the American Railway Association, 1906. The terms were shorthand for common phrases used in telegraphic communications between station agents and Railway Asso...
abetting, abdominal, abiology, ablative, abnormal, abominate, aboveboard, abrasive, absinth, abstinent, accursed, acetate and 212 more...
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Field Mass
for the same
fanon, armet, wether, filibuster, shadoof, shabrack, mai, sainfoin, sand-crack, panoply, guerdon, flunky and 233 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1406 more...
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hagendas 2008
mise-en-scene, occultation, lodestone, obdurate, remontoire, filigree, insensate, carapace, vicissitude, verdigris, indivuation, intercalate and 224 more...
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e-less list
Choice words from Adair's translation of La Disparition
confocal, quiddity, burin, sororal, caparison, lancinating, simoon, fustian, turbot, hirudination, turbid, doss and 31 more...
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the architect
Urban edifices, everything to do with architecture.
voussoir, faience, volute, pronaos, apse, anticum, nave, portico, piazza, agora, pilaster, caryatid and 55 more...
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Fortification
bastion, ravelin, demilune, scarp, counterscarp, covert way, salient, hornwork, crownwork, citadel, merlon, embrasure and 15 more...
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Storming the castle
stockade, turret, wall-walk, balustrade, battlement, drawbridge, dungeon, moat, ambulatory, apse, barbican, bastion and 32 more...
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Tomanian
humdudgeon, bounden, limitrophe, autarkic, bemute, janissary, camarilla, bastion, barbican, machicolation, abacinate, donjon and 28 more...
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uberWENSCH's Words
glisten, uxorious, staccato, mellifluous, eminence grise, cuckold, brilliantine, stave, elan, porte cochere, donjon, ars and 61 more...
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Rice Finds
patois, shaitan, luculent, lorgnette, urbanity, palaver, maven, kith, donjon, glissade, dragoon, trilby and 9 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for donjon.
hernesheir Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for the phrase "What does the difference amount to?" --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906. Jan 22, 2013
chained_bear A keep or great tower; the main citadel of a castle. Aug 25, 2008