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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chatelaine.

The mistress of a castle or large household.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈʃætəleɪn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈʃætəˌleɪn/General-American[-ɾl̩-]General-American
  1. The mistress of a castle or large household.

    dated
  2. A chain or clasp worn at the waist by women with handkerchief, keys, etc., attached, supposed to resemble the chain of keys once worn by medieval chatelaines.

    historical
  3. A similar thing in miniature attached to a watchchain.

Where this word comes from

] Borrowed from French châtelaine, the feminine form of châtelain (“castle-keeper, castellan; one living in a castle”), from Medieval Latin castellanus (“occupants of a castle”), from castellum (“castle, fort”) (diminutive of castrum (“castle, fort”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut off, separate”)) + -ānus (“of or pertaining to”). By surface analysis, Old French chatel + French -aine.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.