Word.ws English Dictionary

Pangloss

Pangloss noun: a naively or unreasonably optimistic person.

Noun

Pangloss (plural Panglosses)

  1. A naively or unreasonably optimistic person.
    • I am as much a Pangloss as ever, only less contemptuous than I used to be, when I argue how unwise it is to feel contempt for anything.1797 July, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “LXXIV. To Robert Southey”, in Ernest Hartley Coleridge, editor, Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, volume I, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company...

Forms of Pangloss

pluralPanglosses

Origin of Pangloss

From Dr. Pangloss, a character in Voltaire's Candide.

Questions about Pangloss

What does Pangloss mean?
Pangloss means a naively or unreasonably optimistic person.
What part of speech is Pangloss?
Pangloss is a noun.
What is the plural of Pangloss?
The plural of Pangloss is Panglosses.

Words near Pangloss in the dictionary

  1. pangless
  2. panglessly
  3. panglial
  4. panglobal
  5. panglomerular
  6. Pangloss
  7. Panglosses
  8. Panglossian
  9. Panglossianism
  10. Panglossic
  11. Pangnirtung

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pangloss (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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