Word.ws English Dictionary

pwn

UK/pəʊn//poʊn/

pwn verb: to own, to defeat or dominate (someone or something, especially a game or someone playing a game).

Verb

pwn (third-person singular simple present pwns, present participle pwning, simple past and past participle pwned or pwnd or pwnt)

  1. (Internet, ambitransitive, dated) To own, to defeat or dominate (someone or something, especially a game or someone playing a game).
    • I pwned them in game!
    • 2nd guard: "Yeah, shiiit! I PWNED YO @zz!"1999 August 5, Quaestor, “Re: [SP] So..the first victim of the Evil/Hero System”, in rec.games.computer.ultima.online (Usenet), retrieved 23 Sep 2016, message-ID <37AA8154.D77E6EB8@Skara.Brae>
    Synonyms:
    own, pwnz0r

Noun (1)

pwn (countable and uncountable, plural pwns)

  1. (Internet) Triumph, victory. Often exclaimed after an opponent in a video game is defeated.
  2. (Internet, computer security) An exploit in computer security, especially relating to machine code.

Noun (2) capitalized: PWN

PWN (plural PWNe)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of pulsar wind nebula.
    Synonyms:
    plerion

Noun (3) capitalized: PWN

PWN (plural PWNs)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of person with narcolepsy.
    Synonyms:
    narcoleptic

Examples of pwn in a sentence

  • When you get to the Temple of Marr, look very closely at the vases at zone-in and see if you can find the picture where Mith Marr "pwns" someone.2003, James Grahame, alt.games.everquest (Usenet):
  • CONTINUE PWNERSHIP UNTIL ALL NOOBZ R PWNED.2005, AlphaDream, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Nintendo:

Synonyms of pwn

Forms of pwn

Verb
third-person singular presentpwns
present participlepwning
past participlepwned
pastpwned
past participlepwnd
pastpwnd
past participlepwnt
pastpwnt
Noun
pluralpwns
pluralPWNe
pluralPWNs

Origin of pwn

From own, possibly born out of a typographical error (the adjacency of o and p on qwerty keyboards).

Abbreviation of pulsar wind nebula.

Abbreviation of person with narcolepsy.

Words formed from pwn

Words that rhyme with pwn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pwn

What does pwn mean?
Pwn means to own, to defeat or dominate (someone or something, especially a game or someone playing a game).
How do you use pwn in a sentence?
When you get to the Temple of Marr, look very closely at the vases at zone-in and see if you can find the picture where Mith Marr "pwns" someone.
What part of speech is pwn?
Pwn can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce pwn?
Pwn is pronounced /pəʊn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of pwn?
The past tense of pwn is pwned.

Words near pwn in the dictionary

  1. PWLB
  2. Pwll
  3. Pwllheli
  4. Pwllypant
  5. PWM
  6. pwn
  7. pwn3d
  8. pwnage
  9. pwnages
  10. pwnd
  11. pwned

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pwn (page history and authors); PWN (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: En-us-pwn.ogg.

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