Meanings
- A constructed language developed for use in the television series Game of Thrones.
The use of High Valyrian mirrors the use of Latin both in the medieval Christian church and as a common language used among the educated elite.
2019, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Neomedievalism, Popular Culture, and the Academy: From Tolkien to Game of Thrones, page 1133 more examples
The HBO series Games of Thrones, which premiered in 2011, has included the languages of Dothraki and High Valyrian, both created by David Peterson.
2015, Douglas Ball, “Constructed languages”, in Rodney H. Jones, editor, The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity, pages 148–149Though two language courses (High Valyrian and Klingon) are constructed languages from popular TV series (Game of Thrones and Star Trek, respectively), there are reportedly more than 100,000 learners doing the High Valyrian course.
2017, David M. Palfreyman, “Learner Autonomy and Groups”, in Autonomy in Language Learning and Teaching: New Research Agendas, page 79Another fascinating element of High Valyrian is its gender system. Nouns in High Valyrian fall into four grammatical genders: lunar, solar, aquatic, and terrestrial. For example, the word embar ("ocean") is aquatic, but the word blēnon ("mountain") is terrestrial.
2023 January 5, Belen Edwards, “High Valyrian from 'Game of Thrones' has four genders. Here's why.”, in Mashable, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2023
Origin
Coined by American writer and television producer George R. R. Martin. First referenced in his 1996 fantasy novel A Game of Thrones. Developed into a usable conlang by David J. Peterson.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
High Valyrian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/High%20Valyrian
“High Valyrian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/High%20Valyrian. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “High Valyrian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/High%20Valyrian.
Source: High Valyrian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.