Word.ws English Dictionary

punkie

Syllables: punk·ie/ˈpʌŋki/

punkie noun: a small two-winged fly or midge of the family Ceratopogonidae, which bites and then sucks the blood of mammals; a biting midge or sandfly.

punkie: a small two-winged fly or midge of the family Ceratopogonidae, which bites and then sucks the blood...
Image: Scott Bauer, USDA ARS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

punkie (plural punkies)

  1. (New-England) A small two-winged fly or midge of the family Ceratopogonidae, which bites and then sucks the blood of mammals; a biting midge or sandfly.

Noun (2)

punkie (plural punkies)

  1. (England, South, West, chiefly Somerset) In full punkie lantern: a lantern similar to a jack-o'-lantern consisting of a gourd such as a pumpkin or a root vegetable such as a mangelwurzel or swede which has been hollowed out, in which a candle has been placed; these are chiefly displayed during Punkie Night in late October.

Noun (3)

punkie (plural punkies)

  1. (US) Synonym of pumpkinseed (“a North American sunfish, Lepomis gibbosus”).
    • But, although anything but a wary fish, the sunfish is not easy to catch because of its small mouth. Unless a small hook is used, meager results are secured in proportion to the antics of the cork or bobber, which in good "punkie" territory is likely to jiggle, stand on end and depart bottomward on...1949 October–November, John R. Greeley, “Sunfishes”, in P. W. Fosburgh, editor, New York State Conservationist, volume 4, number 2, Albany, N.Y.: State of New York Conservation Department, →OCLC...
    Synonyms:
    pumpkinseed

Synonyms of punkie

Forms of punkie

pluralpunkies
alternative formpunkey
alternative formpunky

Origin of punkie

From Jersey Dutch *punkje + English -ie (diminutive suffix). *Punkje is derived from Delaware Munsee *pónkwes + Dutch -je (diminutive suffix); and *pónkwes from Proto-Algonquian *penkw- (“ashes; dust”) (whence Unami punkw (“dust”); probably referring to the insects’ small size) + *-ehs- (diminutive suffix). Compare the name of the Pennsylvania, USA, borough Punxsutawney (from Unami punkwës utènay (“sandfly town”)).

Possibly an alteration of pumpkin (“plant of the species Cucurbita pepo; round orange or yellow fruit of this plant; (archaic) any type of edible gourd”) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

Possibly an alteration of the first two syllables of pumpkinseed (“the North American sunfish Lepomis gibbosus”) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

Words formed from punkie

Words that rhyme with punkie

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about punkie

What does punkie mean?
Punkie means a small two-winged fly or midge of the family Ceratopogonidae, which bites and then sucks the blood of mammals; a biting midge or sandfly.
What part of speech is punkie?
Punkie is a noun.
How do you pronounce punkie?
Punkie is pronounced /ˈpʌŋki/ (UK).
What is the plural of punkie?
The plural of punkie is punkies.

Words near punkie in the dictionary

  1. punkest
  2. punkette
  3. punkettes
  4. punkey
  5. punkeys
  6. punkie
  7. Punkie Night
  8. punkier
  9. punkies
  10. punkiest
  11. punkified

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: punkie (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-punkie.wav.

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