puppet
Syllables: pup·petUK/ˈpʌpɪt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
New Zealand/ˈpɐpət/
puppet noun: any small model of a person or animal able to be moved by strings or rods, or in the form of a glove.
Noun
puppet (plural puppets)
- Any small model of a person or animal able to be moved by strings or rods, or in the form of a glove.
- A person, country, etc, controlled by another.
- These men , from no worse motive that could be discovered than a thirst after knowledge beyond their sphere , committed burglary upon the barn in which the puppets had been consigned to repose1820 March, [Walter Scott], The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co....
- Every act of a Roman, from birth to death, from dawn to night, was controlled and supervised by some presiding deity. Man was thus virtually a symbolic puppet in the hands of the Roman pantheon.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 209
- A poppet; a small image in the human form; a doll.
- The upright support for the bearing of the spindle in a lathe.
Verb
puppet (third-person singular simple present puppets, present participle puppeting, simple past and past participle puppeted)
- To control or manipulate like a puppet.
puppet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
puppet in Hindi
- movable model of a person or animal
- कठपुतली kaṭhputlī, गुड़िया guṛiyā, पुतली putlī
puppet in Tamil
- பொம்மை, கைப்பாவை
puppet in Marathi
- movable model of a person or animal
- कठपुतळी kaṭhputḷī, कळसूत्री kaḷsūtrī
puppet in Urdu
- movable model of a person or animal
- گُڑِیا guṛiyā, پُتْلِی putlī
More languagesFewer languages
- puppet in Bengali
- পুতুল putul
- puppet in Telugu
- కీలుబొమ్మ kīlubomma, తోలుబొమ్మ tōlubomma
- puppet in Malayalam
- പാവ pāva, ചരടുപാവ caraṭupāva
- puppet in Kannada
- ಬೊಂಬೆ, ಹೂಹೆ, ಕರು, ಗೊಂಬೆ
- puppet in Punjabi
- ਪੁਤਲੀ putlī, ਕਠਪੁਤਲੀ kaṭhputalī
- puppet in Gujarati
- કઠપૂતળી, કઠપૂતળીને
- puppet in Sanskrit
- पाञ्चालिका pāñcālikā
- puppet in Sinhala
- රූකඩ rūkaḍa
- puppet in Nepali
- कठपुतली
- puppet in Pashto
- لوبته lobata, لوبتک lobtak, لوبتکه lobtǝka, لوڅکه lūcaka
- puppet in Tagalog
- sebekoy
- puppet in Arabic
- دُمْيَة dumya
- puppet in Malay
- boneka, anak patung
- puppet in Indonesian
- boneka
- puppet in Thai
- หุ่นเชิด hùn-chə̂ət
- puppet in Vietnamese
- con rối, bù nhìn
- puppet in Myanmar
- အရုပ် a.rup
Examples of puppet in a sentence
- Despite installing puppet governments in the marches, the subjects of the empire’s conquered territories were still very conscious of living under heterarchy.
- They’re puppets, doing the bidding of the hectobillionaires.” Ciara had never heard that word before.
- Thankfully, a pair of events last Friday the 13th provided a perfect double feature of puppet perversity.
Synonyms of puppet
Forms of puppet
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | puppets |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | puppets |
| present participle | puppeting |
| past participle | puppeted |
| past | puppeted |
Origin of puppet
From Middle English popet, probably from, though attested earlier than, Middle French poupette, diminutive of poupée (cf. also Medieval Latin *pupata), ultimately derived from Latin pupa (“doll, puppet; girl”). The nominal form first appears c. 1531, and the verbal form c. 1635. See also puppy.
Words formed from puppet
- finger puppet
- fuckpuppet
- glove puppet
- hand puppet
- happy puppet syndrome
- meatpuppet
- meat puppet
- Muppet
- puppet army
- puppetdom
- puppeteer
- puppet government
- puppethood
- puppetish
- puppetism
- puppetize
- puppet leader
- puppetless
- puppetlike
- puppetman
- puppetmaster
- puppet regime
- puppet ruler
- puppetry
- puppet show
- puppet state
- puppet valve
- shadow puppet
- sock puppet
- telepuppet
Phrases with puppet
Words that rhyme with puppet
Questions about puppet
- What does puppet mean?
- Puppet means any small model of a person or animal able to be moved by strings or rods, or in the form of a glove.
- What is puppet in Hindi?
- Puppet in Hindi is कठपुतली (kaṭhputlī), गुड़िया (guṛiyā), पुतली (putlī). See Puppet meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is puppet?
- Puppet can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce puppet?
- Puppet is pronounced /ˈpʌpɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of puppet?
- The plural of puppet is puppets.
Words near puppet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: puppet (page history and authors); puppet (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కీలుబొమ్మ (Telugu) (page history and authors); puppet (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); puppet (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puppet (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-puppet.ogg.
Cite this entry: “puppet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puppet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.