1. queen — A female royal ruler or consort, used predominantly of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1-13; 2 Chronicles 9:1-12), Queen Vashti and Queen Esther (Esther 1:9-18, 2:22, 5:2-12, 7:1-8, 8:1, 9:12, 9:31), and figuratively of queens in Song of Songs 6:8-9. All 35 occurrences share this single lexical meaning across singular definite (הַמַּלְכָּה 'the queen'), construct (מַלְכַּת 'queen of'), and plural (מְלָכוֹת 'queens') forms. Multilingual evidence is uniform: Arabic الْمَلِكَة (al-malikah), Spanish 'reina', Hindi रानी (raani) / रानियाँ (raaniyaan, plural), Korean 왕비/여왕 (wangbi/yeowang), Swahili 'malkia'. The grammatical variation across definite, construct, and plural forms represents inflection, not distinct senses. 35×
AR["الْمَلِكَةَ","الْمَلِكَةُ","الْمَلِكَةِ"]·ben["-রাণী","-রাণীকে","-রাণীর","-রানী","-রানীকে","-রানীর"]·DE["der-Koenigin"]·EN["the-queen"]·FR["reine"]·heb["ה-מלכה"]·HI["रानी","रानी-की","रानी-के","रानी-को","रानी-ने","रानी-ने-भी"]·ID["sang-ratu"]·IT["regina"]·jav["sang-prameswari"]·KO["그-왕부가","그-왕부마다","그-왕부의","그-왕비","그-왕비가","그-왕비를","그-왕비야","그-왕비에게","그-왕비와"]·PT["a-rainha"]·RU["царица","царице","царицей","царицу","царицы"]·ES["la-reina","la-reina?"]·SW["-","bali","kwa-wakuu","la-malkia","malkia","mfalme","sana"]·TR["kraliçe-","kraliçeden-","kraliçenin-","kraliçeye-","kraliçeyi-"]·urd["ملکہ","ملکہ-نے","ملکہ-کی","ملکہ-کے"]
1 Kgs 10:1, 1 Kgs 10:4, 1 Kgs 10:10, 1 Kgs 10:13, 2 Chr 9:1, 2 Chr 9:3, 2 Chr 9:9, 2 Chr 9:12, Esth 1:9, Esth 1:11, Esth 1:12, Esth 1:15 (+23 more)
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
מַלְכָּה35 n.f. queen:—abs. מ׳ Est 1:9 + 24 times Est.; cstr. מַלְכַּת 1 K 10:1 + 7 times; pl. מְלָכוֹת Ct 6:8, 9;—queen of Sheba 1 K 10:1, 4, 10, 13 = 2 Ch 9:1, 3, 9, 12; of Persia, Vashti Est 1:9 + 7 times Est 1; Esther Est 2:22 + 16 times Est 4–9 (in Esther mostly appos. of n.pr.; it precedes n.pr. Est 1:12, 15; follows n.pr. Est 1:9 + 17 times); of Isr. queens only pl. and only Ct 6:8, 9 (both ‖ פִּילַגְשִׁים). Cf. גְּבִירָה.