Word.ws English Dictionary

revenant

/ˈɹɛvənənt/

revenant noun: someone who returns from a long absence.

Noun

revenant (plural revenants)

  1. Someone who returns from a long absence.
    • They would not visit this undesirable revenant with his insolent wealth and discreditable origin.1886, Mrs Lynn Linton, Paston Carew viii, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595
    • The undergraduates, our fogey revenant observes, look much as they did.., in outward aspect.1895 August 31, Daily News 4/7, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595
    Synonyms:
    prodigal, returner
  2. A person or thing reborn.
    • Sometimes […] semi-identifications could be made on the basis of names. Henry VII's son Arthur was hailed as a revenant in this way.2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 184
    Synonyms:
    phoenix
  3. A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
    • For granting even that Religion were dead; that it had died, half-centuries ago, with unutterable Dubois; or emigrated lately, to Alsace, with Necklace-Cardinal Rohan; or that it now walked as goblin revenant with Bishop Talleyrand of Autun; yet does not the Shadow of Religion, the Cant of...1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)
    • Earlier you mentioned a ghost, a revenant with which we may contaminate the Emperor.1969, Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, published 2008, →ISBN, page 19
    Synonyms:
    apparition, spectre

Adjective

revenant (comparative more revenant, superlative most revenant)

  1. Returning.
    • On clear nights when the moon was full, she waited for its shining revenant ghost.1988, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Random House, published 2008, page 134
    • […]which, in turn, led to the first U.S. vessel to be lost that day, as an Avenger touched down near the destroyer USS Porter, which, shortly thereafter, took a torpedo hit, quite possibly from the Avenger's weapon deciding that, well, water immersion must surely mean that it should activate. USS...2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 14:19 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022

revenant meaning in Urdu

revenant in Urdu

بھوت, روح

Examples of revenant in a sentence

  • The stone tablet exerts an invincible fascination over the revenant, who becomes so withdrawn that his father implores him: […]2008, Andrew Cusack, Wanderer in 19th-Century German Literature, Camden House, →ISBN, page 91:
  • And to a revenant who had lived in body after body, died death after death, evanescence could seem like a dream of peace.2011, Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, →ISBN:
  • USS Shaw, the revenant survivor of Pearl Harbor, was then forced to rescue the surviving crew of both the Porter and the aircraft before finishing off the stricken Porter with its guns.2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 14:19 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04...

Synonyms of revenant

All synonyms of revenant

Forms of revenant

Noun
pluralrevenants
Adjective
comparativemore revenant
superlativemost revenant

Origin of revenant

19th century. From French revenant, the present participle of revenir (“to return”). Compare revenue.

Questions about revenant

What does revenant mean?
Revenant means someone who returns from a long absence.
What is revenant in Urdu?
Revenant in Urdu is بھوت, روح. See Revenant meaning in Urdu.
How do you use revenant in a sentence?
The stone tablet exerts an invincible fascination over the revenant, who becomes so withdrawn that his father implores him: […]
What part of speech is revenant?
Revenant can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce revenant?
Revenant is pronounced /ˈɹɛvənənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of revenant?
The plural of revenant is revenants.

Words near revenant in the dictionary

  1. revelrout
  2. revelrouts
  3. revelry
  4. revels
  5. Revelstoke
  6. revenant
  7. revenants
  8. revend
  9. revendge
  10. revendicate
  11. revendicated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: revenant (page history and authors); revenant (Urdu 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-revenant.wav.

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