Word.ws English Dictionary

Pamela

/ˈpæmələ/

Pamela proper noun: a female given name originating as a coinage.

Proper noun

Pamela

  1. A female given name originating as a coinage.
    • They lived about thirty miles from the Squire; and she told me, that I might be sure to find her out by one circumstance; for that they had a daughter with a very strange name, Pamĕla, or Pamēla; some pronounced it one way, and some the other.1773, Henry Fielding, The History and Adventures of Joseph Andrews, page 259
    • - But, Pamela, did you say? - A queer sort of name! - I've heard of it somewhere! - Is it a Christian or a Pagan name? - Linsey-woolsey - half one, half t'other - like thy girl - Ha, ha, ha.'1786, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, page 416

Origin of Pamela

Invented by Sir Philip Sidney for his pastoral poem The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c 1593). Seemingly created from scratch; some imagine an analysis as Ancient Greek πᾶς (pâs, “all”) + μέλι (méli, “honey”) but there is no evidence that this was intended.

Words formed from Pamela

Phrases with Pamela

Questions about Pamela

What does Pamela mean?
Pamela means a female given name originating as a coinage.
What part of speech is Pamela?
Pamela is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Pamela?
Pamela is pronounced /ˈpæmələ/.

Words near Pamela in the dictionary

  1. Pambisan Munti
  2. Pambujan
  3. Pambula
  4. Pambula Beach
  5. pamby
  6. Pamela
  7. Pamela hat
  8. Pamela hats
  9. Pamelyn
  10. pamerin
  11. pamerins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pamela (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.

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

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