Word.ws English Dictionary

puisne

Syllables: puis·ne/ˈpjuːni/US/ˈpjuni/

puisne adjective: younger; junior.

Adjective

puisne (comparative more puisne, superlative most puisne)

  1. (obsolete) Younger; junior.
  2. (obsolete) Insignificant, petty; ineffectual.
    • it is not conceptible that in an infinite , or indeed in a very long period of Revolutions of Mankind , those or any things of this kind discoverable would have been of so late a puiſne a discoverya. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […]...
    • But this intrigue of the ancient is a piece of private history, the truth of which my beloved cares not to own, and indeed, affects to disbelieve. As she does also some puisne gallantries of her foolish brother […].1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CCXVII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn...
  3. Inferior in rank, as designation of any justice, judge etc. other than the most senior.
    • the puisne barons of the Court of Exchequer
  4. Coming later in time; subsequent, secondary.
    • a puisne date to eternitya. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […]...

Noun

puisne (plural puisnes)

  1. A person of puisne rank.

puisne meaning in Tamil

puisne in Tamil

உயர்நீதிமன்ற துணைநடுவர்

Forms of puisne

Adjective
comparativemore puisne
superlativemost puisne
alternative formpuny
Noun
pluralpuisnes

Origin of puisne

PIE word *pós From Anglo-Norman puisné (“later, more recent; junior; weakly”) [and other forms] and Middle French puisné (“born after (a specified person); younger, youngest; one who is born after (a specified person)”) (modern French puîné (“cadet (born after a sibling); a cadet (someone born after a sibling)”)), from puis (“after; since”) + né (“born”). Puis is derived from Old French pois (“after; since”), from Vulgar Latin *postius (“afterward”), from Latin posteā (“afterwards; hereafter; thereafter; next, then”), from post (“after; since”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pós (“afterwards”)) + ea (“these (things)”); and né from Latin nātus (“born”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”).

Words that rhyme with puisne

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about puisne

What does puisne mean?
Puisne means younger; junior.
What is puisne in Tamil?
Puisne in Tamil is உயர்நீதிமன்ற துணைநடுவர். See Puisne meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is puisne?
Puisne can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce puisne?
Puisne is pronounced /ˈpjuːni/ (UK).

Words near puisne in the dictionary

  1. Puig
  2. Puinave
  3. Puinavean
  4. Puinavi
  5. PUIs
  6. puisne
  7. puisnes
  8. puisny
  9. puissance
  10. puissances
  11. puissant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puisne (page history and authors); puisne (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-puisne.wav.

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