Word.ws English Dictionary

pendragon

Syllables: pen·drag·on/pɛnˈdɹæɡ(ə)n/US/pɛnˈdɹæɡ(ə)n/

pendragon noun: also capitalized as Pendragon: a title assumed by the ancient British chiefs when called to lead other chiefs: chief war leader, chieftain, dictator, despot or king.

Noun (1)

pendragon (plural pendragons)

  1. Also capitalized as Pendragon: a title assumed by the ancient British chiefs when called to lead other chiefs: chief war leader, chieftain, dictator, despot or king.
    • [I]n the reign of Henry the Second, a body happening, by chance, to be dug up near Glastonbury Abbey, without any symptoms of putrefaction or decay, the Welch, the descendants of the Ancient Britons, tenacious of the dignity and reputation of that illustrious hero [King Arthur], vainly supposed it...1810, J[ohn] Stagg, “Arthur’s Cave. A Legendary Tale.”, in The Minstrel of the North: Or, Cumbrian Legends. […], London: Printed by Hamblin and Seyfang, […], for the author, and sold by J. Blacklock...
    • The regal dominion, then, held by the sovereigns of Britain in these ages seems most properly described as an elective monarchy made hereditary; or, to take the converse of the proposition, as a hereditary monarchy requiring to be confirmed at the succession of each monarch by a popular election....1853, Beale Poste, “Book I. Britain Tripartite.”, in Britannic Researches. Or New Facts and Rectifications of Ancient British History, London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 43

Proper noun capitalized: Pendragon

Pendragon

  1. (Arthurian legend) An epithet of Uther, the father of King Arthur.
    • It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time.1485, Thomas Malory, chapter 1, in Le Morte D'Arthur, book I
  2. (Arthurian legend) An epithet or surname of King Arthur.
    • At last he got his breath and answer'd, 'One, / One have I seen—that other, our liege lord, / The dread Pendragon, Britain's king of kings, / Of whom the people talk mysteriously, / He will be there—then were I stricken blind / That minute, I might say that I have seen.'1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 169

Noun (2) capitalized: Pendragon

Pendragon (plural Pendragons)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of pendragon.
    • [I]n the reign of Henry the Second, a body happening, by chance, to be dug up near Glastonbury Abbey, without any symptoms of putrefaction or decay, the Welch, the descendants of the Ancient Britons, tenacious of the dignity and reputation of that illustrious hero [King Arthur], vainly supposed it...1810, J[ohn] Stagg, “Arthur’s Cave. A Legendary Tale.”, in The Minstrel of the North: Or, Cumbrian Legends. […], London: Printed by Hamblin and Seyfang, […], for the author, and sold by J. Blacklock...
    • At last he got his breath and answer'd, 'One, / One have I seen—that other, our liege lord, / The dread Pendragon, Britain's king of kings, / Of whom the people talk mysteriously, / He will be there—then were I stricken blind / That minute, I might say that I have seen.'1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 169

Forms of pendragon

pluralpendragons
alternative formPendragon
pluralPendragons

Origin of pendragon

From Middle English Pendragon, borrowed from Welsh pendragon (“chief war leader”), from pen (“head; chief; principal, supreme”) (ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kʷennom (“head”)) + dragon (“dragon; commander, war leader”) (from Latin dracō (“serpent, snake; dragon”), from Ancient Greek δρᾰ́κων (drắkōn, “serpent; dragon”), possibly from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to see, see clearly (in the sense of something staring)”), from Proto-Indo-European *derḱ- (“to see”)). Compare Late Latin īnsulāris dracō (literally “dragon of the island”), used by the monk Saint Gildas (c. 500 – c. 570 AD) in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain) as an epithet of Maelgwn Gwynedd (died c. 547), the king of Gwynedd.

See pendragon.

Words formed from pendragon

Words that rhyme with pendragon

Questions about pendragon

What does pendragon mean?
Pendragon means also capitalized as Pendragon: a title assumed by the ancient British chiefs when called to lead other chiefs: chief war leader, chieftain, dictator, despot or king.
What part of speech is pendragon?
Pendragon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pendragon?
Pendragon is pronounced /pɛnˈdɹæɡ(ə)n/ (UK).
What is the plural of pendragon?
The plural of pendragon is pendragons.

Words near pendragon in the dictionary

  1. Pendolino
  2. Pendolinos
  3. pendom
  4. pendoo
  5. pendoos
  6. pendragon
  7. pendragons
  8. pendragonship
  9. Pendre
  10. Pendred
  11. Pendred disease

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pendragon (page history and authors); Pendragon (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-pendragon.wav.

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