penates
UK/pəˈnɑːtiːz/US/pəˈnɑtiz/
penates noun: the household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
Noun
penates pl (plural only)
- The household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
- lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their Penates and Patronal Gods might be called forth by charms and incantations.1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3
- Synonym of household deities in other contexts.
- ...and a china shepherd and shepherdess, clothed in "a green and yellow melancholy," were the penates of the mantel-piece.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 101
- Synonyms:
- household deities in other contexts
Proper noun capitalized: Penates
Penates
- plural of Penate
Synonyms of penates
- household deities in other contexts
Origin of penates
From Latin penātēs, from penus (“inner part of house”). Displaced native Old English cōfgod.
Words formed from penates
Words that rhyme with penates
Questions about penates
- What does penates mean?
- Penates means the household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
- What part of speech is penates?
- Penates can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce penates?
- Penates is pronounced /pəˈnɑːtiːz/ (UK).
Words near penates in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: penates (page history and authors); Penates (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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Cite this entry: “penates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.