pert
/pɜːt/US/pɝt/
pert adjective: attractive.
Adjective
pert (comparative perter, superlative pertest)
- Attractive.
- Well-formed; shapely.
- pert breasts
- Lively; alert and cheerful; bright.
- Goe Philoſtrate, / Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments, / Awake the peart and nimble ſpirit of mirth, / Turne melancholy foorth to funerals: […]c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]
- He was instantly attracted to Gladys's pert, fey humor and her good nature.2001, Donald Spoto, chapter 1, in Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, page 11
- Especially of children or social inferiors: cheeky, impertinent.
- Says Mrs. Jervis, Pamela, don’t be pert to his Honour? You ſhould know your Diſtance; you ſee his Honour was only in Jeſt.1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XVI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 37
- [T]he Major began to think that Pen was growing exceedingly pert and conceited, and that the world made a great deal too much of him.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced, bold as brass, brassy, malapert, brazen, brazen-faced, cheeky
- Open; evident; unhidden.
- Some parled as perte · as prouyd well after, / And clappid more ffor þe coyne · þat þe kyng oweth hem / Thanne ffor comfforte of þe comyne […][15th century, “[Richard the Redeles.] Passus Quartus.”, in Walter W[illiam] Skeat, editor, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest, […]. Richard the Redeles, […]...
- Clever.
Verb
pert (third-person singular simple present perts, present participle perting, simple past and past participle perted)
Noun (1)
pert (plural perts)
- An impudent person.
Noun (2) capitalized: PERT
PERT (uncountable)
- Acronym of program evaluation and review technique.
Examples of pert in a sentence
- […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I...
- "You'll not be so pert when the Cornish seize you.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 333:
Synonyms of pert
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of pert
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | perter |
| superlative | pertest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | perts |
| present participle | perting |
| past participle | perted |
| past | perted |
| Noun | |
| plural | perts |
Origin of pert
From Middle English pert, perte, aphetic form of apert.
Words formed from pert
- PERT chart
- overpert
- pert as a pearmonger
- pertie
- pertish
- pertly
- pertness
- pertty
- perty
- sea-pert
Phrases with pert
Words that rhyme with pert
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- advert
- alert
- divert
- inert
- avert
- concert
- deconvert
- girt
- lirt
- shirt
- spurt
- subvert
- vert
- wort
- blurt
- chert
- curt
- desert
- dessert
- exert
- introvert
- Leaving Cert
- overt
- red alert
- sturt
- wert
- ambivert
- ambiverts
- apert
- Baie Verte
- begirt
- BERT
- birt
- dissert
- extrovert
- gert
- gurt
- insert
- Kurt
- pirate shirt
- poet shirt
- puffball skirt
- quirt
- reassert
- smirt
- unalert
- unhurt
- wedding shirt
Questions about pert
- What does pert mean?
- Pert means attractive.
- How do you use pert in a sentence?
- […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.
- What part of speech is pert?
- Pert can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce pert?
- Pert is pronounced /pɜːt/ (UK).
Words near pert in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pert (page history and authors); PERT (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-pert.wav.
Cite this entry: “pert.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pert. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.