Seraglio vs. Harem — What's the Difference?

A seraglio ( sə-RAL-yoh or sə-RAHL-yoh) or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in an Ottoman household. The term harem is a generic term for domestic spaces reserved for women in a Muslim family, which can also refer to the women themselves.

Harem (Arabic: حريم‎ ḥarīm, "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") properly refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. This private space has been traditionally understood as serving the purposes of maintaining the modesty, privilege, and seclusion of women from other men.

A large harem.

A house or a section of a house reserved for women members of a Muslim household.

A sultan's palace. Also called serai.

The wives, concubines, female relatives, and servants occupying such a place.

A palace of a sultan.

A group of women who are sexual partners of the same man.

The palace of the Grand Seignior in Constantinople.

A group of female animals that breed exclusively with a single dominant male.

(by figurative extension) A profligate or decadent residence of a rich person.

The private section of an Arab household, traditionally forbidden to male strangers.

The sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines (odalisques) in a Turkish Muslim household.

A group of someone's girlfriends, wives and/or concubines in a polygamous household.

A brothel or place of debauchery.

A group of female animals (cows) herded and controlled by a male animal (bull) of that species for breeding purposes. Such behaviour is exhibited by bovids including cattle and buffalo as well as moose, elephants, seals, sea lions, baboons, and elephant seals.

An interior cage or enclosed courtyard for keeping wild beasts.

(ornithology) A group of female birds mated to or associated with a breeding male.

An inclosure; a place of separation.

(slang) Any significant number of women together as a group; a bevy.

The palace of the Grand Seignior, or Turkish sultan, at Constantinople, inhabited by the sultan himself, and all the officers and dependents of his court. In it are also kept the females of the harem.

(uncountable) A genre of anime and manga in which a man is the love interest of three or more women.

A harem; a place for keeping wives or concubines; sometimes, loosely, a place of licentious pleasure; a house of debauchery.

The apartments or portion of the house allotted to females in Mohammedan families.

Living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household

The family of wives and concubines belonging to one man, in Mohammedan countries; a seraglio.

Living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household