Word.ws English Dictionary

marionette

/ˌmæɹi.əˈnɛt/

marionette noun: a puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.

marionette: a puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings
Image: Jacklee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

marionette (plural marionettes)

  1. A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.
    • If you think we are worked by strings,
      Like a Japanese marionette,
      You don't understand these things:
      It is simply Court etiquette.1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC
  2. (obsolete) The buffel duck.

Verb

marionette (third-person singular simple present marionettes, present participle marionetting, simple past and past participle marionetted)

  1. (transitive) To control (somebody) as if they were a puppet; to manipulate.

marionette meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

marionette in Urdu

کٹھ پتلی

marionette in Bengali

পুতুলনাচের পুতুল

marionette in Malayalam

പാവക്കൂത്ത്, പാവകളി

marionette in Kannada

ಸೂತ್ರದ ಬೊಂಬೆ, ಕೀಲುಬೊಂಬೆ, ಕೀಲುಗೊಂಬೆ, ನೂಲುಗೊಂಬೆ, ಕಿಳ್ಳಿಕೇತ, ಕಿಳ್ಳೀಕೇತ
More languagesFewer languages
marionette in Persian
عَرُوسَکِ خَیْمَه شَب بازِی
marionette in Thai
หุ่นเชิด hùn-chə̂ət

Forms of marionette

Noun
pluralmarionettes
Verb
third-person singular presentmarionettes
present participlemarionetting
past participlemarionetted
pastmarionetted

Origin of marionette

Borrowed from French marionnette. The word had originally meant a small statue of the Virgin Mary, then also a puppet of her used in religious theatrical presentations, finally generalised to any puppet.

Words formed from marionette

Phrases with marionette

Words that rhyme with marionette

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about marionette

What does marionette mean?
Marionette means a puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.
What is marionette in Urdu?
Marionette in Urdu is کٹھ پتلی. See Marionette meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is marionette?
Marionette can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce marionette?
Marionette is pronounced /ˌmæɹi.əˈnɛt/.
What is the plural of marionette?
The plural of marionette is marionettes.

Words near marionette in the dictionary

  1. Marion Bay
  2. Marion County
  3. marionberries
  4. marionberry
  5. Marionetta
  6. marionette
  7. marionette line
  8. marionette lines
  9. marionetted
  10. marionettelike
  11. marionettes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: marionette (page history and authors); marionette (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); marionette (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); marionette (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); marionette (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-marionette.wav.

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