dungeon

English

Etymology

From Middle English dungeo(u)n, dungun (“castle keep, prison cell below the castle, dungeon”), from Old French donjon (“castle keep”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *dungjo (“prison, dungeon, underground cellar”), from Proto-Germanic *dungijō, *dungijōn, *dungō (“enclosed space, vault, bower, treasury”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhengh- (“to cover”). Cognate with Old English dung (“prison, dungeon”), Old Saxon dung (“underground cellar”), Old High German tung (“underground cellar”), Old Norse dyngja (“a lady's bower”). More at dung.

The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdʌn.dʒən/ SAMPA: /"dVn.dZ@n/

Noun

Wikipedia dungeon (plural dungeons)

1. An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
2. (obsolete) The main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon.
3. (games) An underground area inhabited by enemies, containing story objectives, treasure and bosses.

Hyponyms

• oubliette

Derived terms

• instance dungeon
• dungeon crawler

Translations

underground prison or vault

Arabic: زِنْزانَة (zinzāna) f. Bulgarian: донжон m. Catalan: calabós m. Chinese: Mandarin: 地牢 (cmn) (dìláo) Danish: fangekælder (da) Dutch: kerker (nl) m. Esperanto: (prison): karcero (eo) Finnish: vankityrmä (fi), tyrmä (fi) French: oubliette (fr) f. German: Verlies (de) n., Kerker (de) m. Greek: μπουντρούμι (el) (bountroúmi) n. Hebrew: צינוק (tzinok) m. Hungarian: kazamata (hu)

Icelandic: dýflissa (is) f. Italian: prigione sotterranea f., segreta (it) f. Japanese: 地下牢 (ja) (chikarō) Korean: 던전 (deonjeon) Latin: carcer (la) m., robur (la) n. Norwegian: fangekjeller (no) m., fangehull (no) n. Old English: dung (ang) f., dimhūs (ang) n. Persian: محبس Polish: loch (pl) m. Portuguese: masmorra (pt) f., calabouço (pt) m. Russian: темница (ru) (temníca) f., склеп (ru) (sklep) m. Serbian: донжон кула m. Spanish: mazmorra (es) f., calabozo (es) m. Turkish: zindan (tr)

the main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon

Catalan: masmorra (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 城堡主樓 (cmn), 城堡主楼 (cmn) (chéngbǎo zhǔlóu), 樓櫓 (cmn), 楼橹 (cmn) (lóulǔ) Esperanto: loĝejturo (eo) Finnish: keskustorni (fi) French: donjon (fr) m., cachot (fr) m.

German: Verlies (de) n. Hungarian: vártorony (hu) Italian: torrione (it) m. Portuguese: torre de menagem (pt) f. Russian: главная башня (ru) (glávnaja bášnja) f., донжон (ru) (donžón) m. Spanish: mazmorra (es) f.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Hindi: अंधकूपकारागार (a.ndhupakārāgār) Marathi: अंधारकोठी (a.ndhārakothī)

Telugu: చీకటి గది (cIkaTi gadi), భూగృహము (bhUgRhamu)