deadpan
/ˈdɛdpæn/
deadpan adjective: deliberately impassive or expressionless.
Adjective
deadpan (comparative more deadpan, superlative most deadpan)
- Deliberately impassive or expressionless.
- a deadpan face or look
- deadpan behaviour or speech
- Having such a face or look.
- The comedian remained deadpan.
Adverb
deadpan (comparative more deadpan, superlative most deadpan)
- In a deadpan manner.
- A city-hired consultant from a firm called Urban Futures was booed repeatedly by the agitated homeowners as he talked deadpan, in bureaucratese, about his firm's "evidentiary record" pointing to blight in the neighborhood.2004, Steven Greenhut, Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain, page 46
Noun
deadpan (uncountable)
- A style of comedic delivery in which something humorous is said or done while not exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression.
- MAREK: But really the deadpan is key. You can essentially trick people into laughing at nothing.2007, Meredith Gran, Octopus Pie #71: Deadpan
- Synonyms:
- deadpan comedy, deadpan humour
Verb
deadpan (third-person singular simple present deadpans, present participle deadpanning, simple past and past participle deadpanned)
- To express (something) in an impassive or expressionless manner.
- Kidd deadpanned it, stared glassily back at Maitland.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 496
deadpan meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
deadpan in Tamil
- இறுக்கமான
deadpan in Bengali
- ইচ্ছাকৃতভাবে অভিব্যক্তিহীন, ভাবলেশহীন, আবেগশূন্য, নির্বিকার, দৃষ্টিভঙ্গিযুক্ত, নির্বিকারভাবে
deadpan in Malayalam
- expressionless, blank, unexpressive
- നിർവ്വികാരം, ശൂന്യമായ, നിർവികാരമായ, അവികാര, നിർജ്ജീവമായ, ഭാവഭേദമില്ലാത്ത
Examples of deadpan in a sentence
- For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.
- Steven Wright has a deadpan delivery, Norm Macdonald has a dry sense of humor, and Oscar Wilde had a dry wit.
- Red Hawke's deadpan delivery was one of the most hilarious moments in the game for me haha.
Synonyms of deadpan
- deadpan comedy
- deadpan humour
- poker-faced
Forms of deadpan
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more deadpan |
| superlative | most deadpan |
| alternative form | dead-pan |
| alternative form | dead pan |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more deadpan |
| superlative | most deadpan |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | deadpans |
| present participle | deadpanning |
| past participle | deadpanned |
| past | deadpanned |
Origin of deadpan
From dead + pan (“face”).
Words formed from deadpan
Questions about deadpan
- What does deadpan mean?
- Deadpan means deliberately impassive or expressionless.
- What is deadpan in Tamil?
- Deadpan in Tamil is இறுக்கமான. See Deadpan meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is deadpan?
- Deadpan can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce deadpan?
- Deadpan is pronounced /ˈdɛdpæn/.
Words near deadpan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deadpan (page history and authors); deadpan (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deadpan (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deadpan (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-deadpan.wav.
Cite this entry: “deadpan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deadpan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.