Meanings
plural marionettes
- A puppet, usually made of wood, which is animated by the pulling of strings.
If you think we are worked by strings, Like a Japanese marionette, You don't understand these things: It is simply Court etiquette.
1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC - obsoleteThe buffel duck.
present singular third person marionettes · participle present marionetting · participle past marionetted · past marionetted
- transitiveTo control (somebody) as if they were a puppet; to manipulate.
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Frenchmarionnette
- Englishmarionette
Borrowed from French marionnette. The word had originally meant a small statue of the Virgin Mary, then also a puppet of her used in religious theatrical presentations, finally generalised to any puppet.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans marionet
- marionetstring puppet
Bulgarian марионетка
- марионетка (marionetka)string puppet
Catalan marioneta
- marionetastring puppet
Chinese Cantonese 扯線公仔 /扯线公仔, 木頭公仔 /木头公仔
- 扯線公仔 /扯线公仔 (ce² sin³ gung¹ zai²)string puppet
- 木頭公仔 /木头公仔 (muk⁶ tau⁴ gung¹ zai²)string puppet
Chinese Mandarin 扯線木偶 /扯线木偶, 扯線木偶 /扯线木偶
- 扯線木偶 /扯线木偶string puppet
- 扯線木偶 /扯线木偶 (chěxiàn mù'ǒu)string puppet
- 提線木偶 /提线木偶 (tíxiàn mù'ǒu)string puppet
- 懸絲傀儡 /悬丝傀儡 (xuánsī kuǐlěi)string puppet
Czech marioneta
- marionetastring puppet
Dutch marionet
- marionetstring puppet
Esperanto marioneto
- marionetostring puppet
Finnish marionetti
- marionettistring puppet
French marionnette
- marionnettestring puppet
German Marionette
- Marionettestring puppet
Hungarian marionett
- marionettstring puppet
Italian marionetta
- marionettastring puppet
Japanese 糸繰り人形, マリオネット
- 糸繰り人形 (itokuri ningyō)string puppet
- マリオネット (marionetto)string puppet
Latin vavato
- vavatostring puppet
Norwegian Bokmål marionett
- marionettstring puppet
Persian عَرُوسَکِ خَیْمَه شَب بازِی
- عَرُوسَکِ خَیْمَه شَب بازِیstring puppet
Polish marionetka
- marionetkastring puppet
Portuguese marionete
- marionetestring puppet
Romanian marionetă
- marionetăstring puppet
Russian марионе́тка
- марионе́тка (marionétka)string puppet
Slovak bábka
- bábkastring puppet
Spanish marioneta
- marionetastring puppet
Swedish marionett
- marionettstring puppet
Thai หุ่นเชิด
- หุ่นเชิด (hùn-chə̂ət)string puppet
Turkish kukla
- kuklastring puppet
Ukrainian маріоне́тка
- маріоне́тка (marionétka)string puppet
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with marionette
Anagrams
Cite this entry
marionette. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/marionette
“marionette.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/marionette. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “marionette,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/marionette.
Source: marionette on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.