Word.ws English Dictionary

padawan

Syllables: pa·da·wan/ˈpædəˌwɒn/US/ˈpædəˌwɑn/

padawan noun: an apprentice or student Jedi.

padawan: an apprentice or student Jedi
Image: LeVellave, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

padawan (plural padawans)

  1. An apprentice or student Jedi.
    • Just as Plato requires a training program that combines physical and mental skills, so does Yoda. The training you'll receive will probably be similar to the training young Luke Skywalker receives from Yoda, since you're probably nearer his age than younger padawans. Throughout his training, Luke...2005, Judith Barad, “The Aspiring Jedi’s Handbook of Virtue”, in Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, editors, Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (Popular Culture and...
    • Like, practically every day in third grade, Auggie and I would hang out together on FaceChat. We had decided to grow our Padawan braids before I moved away, so it was a great way to check how long they had gotten.2015, R. J. Palacio, “FaceChat”, in Pluto: A Wonder Story, New York, N.Y.: Knopf Books for Young Readers, →ISBN
  2. (broadly, humorous) Any apprentice or student.
    • It is impossible for you to create this application using only the techniques you learned in the first two chapters, so read on young padawan!2001, Joseph P. Russell, Java Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner series), Roseville, Calif.: Prima Tech, →ISBN, page 57
    • The root of your problem is just that, young padawan. Hmmm?2005 November, Tom [Thomas A.] Limoncelli, “Automation”, in Mike Loukides, David Brickner, editors, Time Management for System Administrator, Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 160

Proper noun capitalized: Padawan

Padawan

  1. A subdistrict of the Kuching District, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Noun (2) capitalized: Padawan

Padawan (plural Padawans)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of padawan.
    • Like, practically every day in third grade, Auggie and I would hang out together on FaceChat. We had decided to grow our Padawan braids before I moved away, so it was a great way to check how long they had gotten.2015, R. J. Palacio, “FaceChat”, in Pluto: A Wonder Story, New York, N.Y.: Knopf Books for Young Readers, →ISBN
    • Her underlings flanked her, like Padawans studying beneath some great Jedi.2017, Marnie Riches, Born Bad, London: Avon, →ISBN

padawan meaning in Indonesian and Thai

padawan in Indonesian

apprentice or student Jedi
padawan

padawan in Thai

apprentice or student Jedi
พาดาวัน pāa-dāa-wan

Examples of padawan in a sentence

  • The training you'll receive will probably be similar to the training young Luke Skywalker receives from Yoda, since you're probably nearer his age than younger padawans.2005, Judith Barad, “The Aspiring Jedi’s Handbook of Virtue”, in Kevin S. Decker, Jason T. Eberl, editors, Star Wars and Philosophy: More...
  • A long, long time ago in a church far, far away, as a padawan youth pastor, I had a utopian view of what it'd be like to work in youth ministry.2009, Len Evans, “When You’re Fired”, in Tim Baker, editor, The Youth Worker Book of Hope: True Stories of Brokenness and Healing (Youth...
  • The first of the padawan has already flopped.2010 September 5, Mike Tanier, “The Fifth Down; new trends, new season”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2018:

Forms of padawan

pluralpadawans
alternative formPadawan
pluralPadawans

Origin of padawan

Coined by American filmmaker George Lucas as early as 1973 (in the manuscript Journal of the Whills, where it was spelled padawaan), but not used in his Star Wars film franchise until Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace which premiered on 16 May 1999.

Questions about padawan

What does padawan mean?
Padawan means an apprentice or student Jedi.
What is padawan in Indonesian?
Padawan in Indonesian is padawan. See Padawan meaning in Indonesian.
How do you use padawan in a sentence?
The training you'll receive will probably be similar to the training young Luke Skywalker receives from Yoda, since you're probably nearer his age than younger padawans.
What part of speech is padawan?
Padawan can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce padawan?
Padawan is pronounced /ˈpædəˌwɒn/ (UK).
What is the plural of padawan?
The plural of padawan is padawans.

Words near padawan in the dictionary

  1. Padasjoki
  2. padauk
  3. padauks
  4. Padaung
  5. Padaungs
  6. padawan
  7. padawans
  8. padayatra
  9. padayatras
  10. Padborg
  11. Padbury

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: padawan (page history and authors); Padawan (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-padawan.wav.

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