Tudor describes the time in English history from 1485 to 1603, when the Tudor family sat on the throne — Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. So you will read about the Tudor period, Tudor England, a Tudor king, Tudor London. It is an adjective made from a family name, which is why it is always written with a capital T. Two of these rulers are the reason the word is famous at all: Henry VIII, who married six times and broke England away from the Catholic Church, and his daughter Elizabeth I, whose long reign covers Shakespeare's whole working life. So when a British person says "Tudor", quite often they are not thinking about dates — they are thinking about that whole world: the beheadings, the ruffs, the plays, the ships. There is a second use you will meet more often in daily life than in a history class: Tudor is a style of building. A Tudor house has white walls with dark wooden beams crossing them in stripes and triangles, small windows with many little panes, and a steep pointed roof. Most houses called Tudor today are not from the 1500s at all — they are newer houses built to look old, and estate agents love the word. The English also say mock Tudor for these, sometimes kindly, sometimes as a small joke. Note that Tudor almost always sits in front of a noun. You would not say "this house is Tudor" as easily as "this is a Tudor house", though both are heard.