petition
/pəˈtɪʃ.ən/
petition noun: a formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority, often containing many signatures, soliciting some grace, right, mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance.
Noun
petition (plural petitions)
- A formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority, often containing many signatures, soliciting some grace, right, mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance.
- We're looking to get 10,000 people to sign the petition to have the bird colony given legal protection.
- Synonyms:
- suit
- A formal written application made to a magistrate or court for an order or a suit for divorce.
- A prayer or supplication, especially of which is formal or humble and made to a deity, a sovereign, or an authority.
- a petition to aid
- a petition to God for courage and strength
Verb
petition (third-person singular simple present petitions, present participle petitioning, simple past and past participle petitioned)
- To make a petition to (a sovereign or political authority).
- The villagers petitioned the council to demolish the dangerous building.
- The company, appreciating the crippling affect ^([sic]) that this scheme will have on its activities unless the railway is diverted, has petitioned against the North Wales Hydro-Electric Power Bill at present before the House of Lords.1955 April, “Notes and News: Restoring the Festiniog Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 288
petition meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
petition in Hindi
- formal, written request made to an official person
- याचिका yācikā, ज्ञापन jñāpan
- compilation of signatures
- याचिका yācikā, ज्ञापन jñāpan
- legal: formal request for judicial action
- याचिका yācikā
- to make a request
- याचना yācnā
petition in Tamil
- formal, written request made to an official person
- மனு maṉu
petition in Marathi
- petition, contract, agreement
- कौल kaul
petition in Urdu
- compilation of signatures
- دَرْخْوَاسْت darxvāst, عَرِیضَہ 'arīza
More languagesFewer languages
- petition in Bengali
- সওয়াল śoōẇal, গুজারেশ guzaresh
- petition in Telugu
- పిటిషన్, పిటిషన్ను
- petition in Malayalam
- ഹർജി haṟji
- petition in Kannada
- ಮನವಿ, ನಿವೇದನೆ, ಅರಿಕೆ, ಬೇಡಿಕೆ
- petition in Punjabi
- ਅਰਜ਼ arz
- petition in Gujarati
- પિટિશન
- petition in Odia
- ପିଟିସନ୍
- petition in Nepali
- याचिका
- petition in Arabic
- عَرِيضَة ʕarīḍa, طَلَب ṭalab
- petition in Malay
- petisyen, rayuan
- petition in Indonesian
- petisi
- petition in Thai
- คำร้อง kam-rɔ́ɔng
- petition in Vietnamese
- sự cầu xin
Examples of petition in a sentence
- The petition was so ridiculous that the house rejected it after minimal debate.
- The aggrieved person may present their petition to the court for review.
- The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
Synonyms of petition
Forms of petition
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | petitions |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | petitions |
| present participle | petitioning |
| past participle | petitioned |
| past | petitioned |
Origin of petition
From Middle English, borrowed from Old French peticiun, from stem of Latin petitio, petitionem (“a request, solicitation”), from petere (“to require, seek, go forward”).
Words formed from petition
Questions about petition
- What does petition mean?
- Petition means a formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority, often containing many signatures, soliciting some grace, right, mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance.
- What is petition in Hindi?
- Petition in Hindi is याचिका (yācikā), ज्ञापन (jñāpan), याचना (yācnā). See Petition meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is petition?
- Petition can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce petition?
- Petition is pronounced /pəˈtɪʃ.ən/.
- What is the plural of petition?
- The plural of petition is petitions.
Words near petition in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: petition (page history and authors); कौल (Marathi) (page history and authors); গুজারেশ (Bengali) (page history and authors); petition (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഹർജി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); petition (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਅਰਜ਼ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); petition (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); petition (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); petition (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-petition.wav.
Cite this entry: “petition.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/petition. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.