Word.ws English Dictionary

peon

/ˈpiː.ən/US/ˈpi.ɑn/

peon noun: a lowly person; a peasant or serf; a labourer who is obliged to do menial work.

Noun

peon (plural peons or peones)

  1. A lowly person; a peasant or serf; a labourer who is obliged to do menial work.
  2. (figuratively) A person of low rank or importance.
    • He is well dressed in cheap clothing. Like an office peon whose wife works in a laundry.2011, Shehan Karunatilaka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Jonathan Cape, page 260
  3. (India, historical) A messenger, foot soldier, or native policeman.

peon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

peon in Hindi

peasant or serf
चपरासी caprāsī

peon in Tamil

ஏவலர்

peon in Urdu

peasant or serf
چپراسی caprāsī

peon in Bengali

peon, footsoldier
পিয়ন piẏon
More languagesFewer languages
peon in Telugu
జవాను javānu
peon in Malayalam
ശിപായി śipāyi, ചപ്രാസി caprāsi
peon in Kannada
ಸಿಪಾಯಿ sipāyi
peon in Arabic
كَادِح kādiḥ

Forms of peon

pluralpeons
pluralpeones

Origin of peon

From a combination of Middle French pion, peon and Spanish peón, both from Late Latin pedōnem (“pedestrian”). Doublet of pawn.

Words formed from peon

Words that rhyme with peon

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about peon

What does peon mean?
Peon means a lowly person; a peasant or serf; a labourer who is obliged to do menial work.
What is peon in Hindi?
Peon in Hindi is चपरासी (caprāsī). See Peon meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is peon?
Peon is a noun.
How do you pronounce peon?
Peon is pronounced /ˈpiː.ən/ (UK).
What is the plural of peon?
The plural of peon is peons.

Words near peon in the dictionary

  1. Penzance
  2. Penzas
  3. penzhinite
  4. PEO
  5. peo.
  6. peon
  7. peonage
  8. peonages
  9. peones
  10. peonidin
  11. peonidins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peon (page history and authors); peon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); পিয়ন (Bengali) (page history and authors); జవాను (Telugu) (page history and authors); ചപ്രാസി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಸಿಪಾಯಿ (Kannada) (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-peon.wav.

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