See king's ransom in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the exceptionally high ransom demanded for the return of a kidnapped or captured king.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king's ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "kings' ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"2": "kings' ransoms"
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"expansion": "king's ransom (plural king's ransoms or kings' ransoms)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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{
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{
"kind": "other",
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{
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"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Money",
"orig": "en:Money",
"parents": [
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"Economics",
"Society",
"Social sciences",
"All topics",
"Sciences",
"Fundamental"
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 12, in The Talisman:",
"text": "\"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1967 March 10, Archeology: An Ill-Starred Treasure Comes into Its Own (pictorial), LIFE, page 101",
"text": "These gold, silver and pewter pieces are part of a king’s ransom of Spanish treasure salvaged from the sea off Florida where they had lain for 250 years."
},
{
"ref": "1986 March 24, Bernice Kanner, “The Real James Bond: Jim Lebenthal’s Tax-Bill Crusade”, in New York, page 46:",
"text": "“[…]This commercial message is sponsored by Lebenthal in the heartfelt belief that we’re not the only ones who are going to miss the bonds when they’re gone and it costs a king’s ransom to turn on the lights, boil water, or haul the garbage.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, “The Pendulum: Its Place in Science, Culture and Pedagogy”, in Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, editors, The Pendulum: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Educational Perspectives, page 7:",
"text": "Solving longitude was one of the major preoccupations of European nations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. King’s ransoms were offered for its solution.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Jane Feather, Rushed to the Altar, Pocket Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 386:",
"text": "Except that Clarissa Astley would not have been decked out in a king's ransom of diamonds.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very large sum of money."
],
"id": "en-king's_ransom-en-noun-W9TSrQHc",
"links": [
[
"money",
"money"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very large sum of money."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fortune"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "jättisumma"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "borsos ár"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "vagyon"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bolʹšój kuš",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "большо́й куш"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "förmögenhet"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "furstlig summa"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"audio": "En-au-king's ransom.ogg",
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"word": "king's ransom"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the exceptionally high ransom demanded for the return of a kidnapped or captured king.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king's ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "kings' ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"2": "kings' ransoms"
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"expansion": "king's ransom (plural king's ransoms or kings' ransoms)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
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"Terms with Finnish translations",
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"Terms with Swedish translations",
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 12, in The Talisman:",
"text": "\"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1967 March 10, Archeology: An Ill-Starred Treasure Comes into Its Own (pictorial), LIFE, page 101",
"text": "These gold, silver and pewter pieces are part of a king’s ransom of Spanish treasure salvaged from the sea off Florida where they had lain for 250 years."
},
{
"ref": "1986 March 24, Bernice Kanner, “The Real James Bond: Jim Lebenthal’s Tax-Bill Crusade”, in New York, page 46:",
"text": "“[…]This commercial message is sponsored by Lebenthal in the heartfelt belief that we’re not the only ones who are going to miss the bonds when they’re gone and it costs a king’s ransom to turn on the lights, boil water, or haul the garbage.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, “The Pendulum: Its Place in Science, Culture and Pedagogy”, in Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, editors, The Pendulum: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Educational Perspectives, page 7:",
"text": "Solving longitude was one of the major preoccupations of European nations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. King’s ransoms were offered for its solution.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Jane Feather, Rushed to the Altar, Pocket Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 386:",
"text": "Except that Clarissa Astley would not have been decked out in a king's ransom of diamonds.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very large sum of money."
],
"links": [
[
"money",
"money"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very large sum of money."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"audio": "En-au-king's ransom.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fe/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg.mp3",
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"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fortune"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "jättisumma"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "borsos ár"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "vagyon"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bolʹšój kuš",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "большо́й куш"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "förmögenhet"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "furstlig summa"
}
],
"word": "king's ransom"
}
Download raw JSONL data for king's ransom meaning in English (3.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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