harlequin

/ˈhɑːlɪkwɪn/US/ˈhɑɹlɪkwɪn/

harlequin noun: a pantomime fool, typically dressed in colorful checkered clothes, used as a stock character in commedia dell'arte and other genres.

Image: Paul Cézanne, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

harlequin (countable and uncountable, plural harlequins)

A pantomime fool, typically dressed in colorful checkered clothes, used as a stock character in commedia dell'arte and other genres.
- […] were certainly the worst and dullest company into which an audience was ever introduced; and (which was a secret known to few) were actually intended so to be, in order to contrast the comic part of the entertainment, and to display the tricks of harlequin to the better advantage.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- Motives are like harlequins—there is always a second dress beneath their first.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 241
A greenish-chartreuse color.
(informal) A harlequin duck.
Any of various riodinid butterflies of the genera Taxila and Praetaxila.

Adjective

harlequin (not comparable)

Brightly colored, especially in a pattern like that of a harlequin clown's clothes.
Of a greenish-chartreuse color.

Verb

harlequin (third-person singular simple present harlequins, present participle harlequining, simple past and past participle harlequined)

(transitive) To remove or conjure away, as if by a harlequin's trick.
- And kitten, if the humour hit / Has harlequin'd away the fit.1737, Matthew Green, The Spleen
(intransitive) To make sport by playing ludicrous tricks.

Proper noun capitalized: Harlequin

Harlequin

The best-known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo.
A type of eyeglass frame design inspired by Venetian Harlequin masks, more commonly known as cat-eye.

harlequin meaning in Malayalam and Tagalog

harlequin in Malayalam

joker, jester, merry andrew: പൊറാട്ടു നാടകക്കാരൻ, വിദൂഷകൻ, തമാശക്കാരൻ, നേരമ്പോക്കുകാരൻ, പുതുമക്കാരൻ, ജോക്കർ
colourful, multicoloured, many-coloured: വിവിധവർണ്ണാങ്കിതമായ, നാനാവർണ്ണങ്ങളോടുകൂടിയ, കർബ്ബര, കർവ്വര, കർബ്ബു, കർബ്ബുര

Forms of harlequin

Noun
plural	harlequins
Verb
third-person singular present	harlequins
present participle	harlequining
past participle	harlequined
past	harlequined

Plural of harlequin: harlequins

Origin of harlequin

From earlier Harlicken, from Middle French Harlequin (in Italian Arlecchino, the name of a popular servant character in commedia dell'arte plays), from Old French Harlequin, Halequin, Herlequin, Hellequin, Hierlekin, Hellekin (a demon, malevolent spirit), probably of Germanic origin, connected to the Old English figure of *Herla Cyning (“King Herla”, a mythical figure identified with Woden) or possibly to Old Frisian helle kin, Old English helle cyn, Old Norse heljar kyn (“the kindred of Hell”). Related to Middle English Hurlewain (“a mischievous sprite or goblin”).

Words formed from harlequin

Phrases with harlequin

Questions about harlequin

What does harlequin mean?: Harlequin means a pantomime fool, typically dressed in colorful checkered clothes, used as a stock character in commedia dell'arte and other genres.
What is harlequin in Malayalam?: Harlequin in Malayalam is പൊറാട്ടു നാടകക്കാരൻ, വിദൂഷകൻ, തമാശക്കാരൻ. See Harlequin meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is harlequin?: Harlequin can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce harlequin?: Harlequin is pronounced /ˈhɑːlɪkwɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of harlequin?: The plural of harlequin is harlequins.

Words near harlequin in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: harlequin (page history and authors); Harlequin (page history and authors); harlequin (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-harlequin.wav.

Cite this entry: “harlequin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/harlequin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.