dungeon

noun

dun·​geon ˈdən-jən 

1

: donjon

2

: a dark usually underground prison or vault

Did you know?

The words for two different parts of a castle come from the same source. The word dungeon, meaning “a dark usually underground prison,” comes from the French word donjon, which also gives us our English word donjon, meaning “an inner tower in a castle.” Dungeon was first used in English in the 14th century for the strong tower in the inner part of the castle. Defenders could retreat to this tower if attackers got inside the castle walls. Part of the tower usually included an underground room, the dungeon, usually used for prisoners. Throughout its history, the word dungeon has had many spellings. Sometimes it was spelled donjon like the French word it comes from, and sometimes in other ways. In time the spelling donjon came to be used mostly for the castle tower, and the spelling dungeon mostly for the underground room or prison.

Examples of dungeon in a Sentence

The king threw them in the dungeon.

Recent Examples on the Web

On the morning after Assad’s escape from Damascus, in the underground dungeon of a fearsome prison known as the Palestine Branch, a twenty-seven-year-old farmer’s son named Motasem Kattan awoke to shouts and the clattering of iron doors. —Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025

These paradoxes twist around the game like briars around an enchanted tower; at the window stands the dungeon master. —Andrea Long Chu, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2024

The earliest players approached D&D like just another war game, blazing blithely from one dungeon to another. —Andrea Long Chu, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2024

Cooperation is essential to survive, as World of Warcraft in its earliest iterations relied on players to party up to complete quests and successfully run dungeons to obtain valuable gear. —Kazuma Hashimoto, Rolling Stone, 2 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English dongeon, donjon, from Anglo-French donjun, from Vulgar Latin *domnion-, domnio keep, mastery, from Latin dominus lord — more at dominate

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing dungeon

• dungeon crawler

Kids Definition

dungeon

noun

dun·​geon ˈdən-jən 

1

: donjon

2

: a dark usually underground prison

Etymology

Middle English donjon "tower in a castle, dungeon," from early French donjon "castle tower" — related to donjon

Word Origin

The word dungeon, in use in English since the 1300s, originally referred to the keep of a castle—the massive inner tower detached from the rest of the structure that was its most securely located and protected part. During its early history this word had about a dozen different spellings, but nowadays, in the sense of a castle's keep, the usual form is donjon. The donjon was the stronghold to which the residents of the castle retreated if the outer walls had been scaled or breached in a siege. The subterranean part of a donjon was called by the same word in the form dungeon, the usual spelling for this sense. This dark, damp chamber was used as a cell for the confinement of prisoners. Both donjon and dungeon are borrowed from medieval French donjon, most likely the descendant of an unrecorded spoken Latin form domnio, ultimately a derivative of Latin dominus, "lord." The underlying sense of domnio would have been "dominating tower," reflecting the relation between the keep and the rest of the castle.