pucelle
/pʊˈsɛl/
pucelle noun: a girl, a maiden; a virgin (often with reference to Joan of Arc).
Noun
pucelle (plural pucelles)
- A girl, a maiden; a virgin (often with reference to Joan of Arc).
- But what's that Puzell whom they tearme so pure?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Lady or pucelle, that wears mask or fan.c. 1608, Ben Jonson, letter to John Fletcher
- A prostitute, a slut.
Examples of pucelle in a sentence
- There might have been a hundred Jeanne d'Arcs, all definable as pucelle or maid, just as we say “spinster”: we even read of one in the time of the Revolution.1876, John Fiske, “Historical Difficulties”, in The Unseen World, and Other Essays:
- She was at the height of her strange career.…‘Maid or Witch, Pucelle or Puzzell – she is very hard to understand.’1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:
Forms of pucelle
| plural | pucelles |
|---|---|
| alternative form | puzell |
| alternative form | puzzell |
Origin of pucelle
From Anglo-Norman pucele, Middle French pucele, perhaps from a Late Latin *pullicella, but the further etymology is disputed. Compare Sicilian pulla.
Words that rhyme with pucelle
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hell
- hotel
- repel
- smell
- cartel
- dell
- pell
- quell
- as well
- au naturel
- dwell
- expel
- fell
- gel
- La Rochelle
- lol
- oversell
- stell
- wel
- ABDL
- dispel
- ell
- kell
- knell
- mell
- personnel
- quenelle
- snell
- undersell
- yell
- belle
- death knell
- del
- farewell
- flotel
- foretell
- gazelle
- impel
- mademoiselle
- marcel
- mel
- morell
- Moselle
- motel
- NFL
- overswell
- propel
- rappel
Questions about pucelle
- What does pucelle mean?
- Pucelle means a girl, a maiden; a virgin (often with reference to Joan of Arc).
- How do you use pucelle in a sentence?
- There might have been a hundred Jeanne d'Arcs, all definable as pucelle or maid, just as we say “spinster”: we even read of one in the time of the Revolution.
- What part of speech is pucelle?
- Pucelle is a noun.
- How do you pronounce pucelle?
- Pucelle is pronounced /pʊˈsɛl/.
- What is the plural of pucelle?
- The plural of pucelle is pucelles.
Words near pucelle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pucelle (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)-Vealhurl-pucelle.wav.
Cite this entry: “pucelle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pucelle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.