marionette

[ mar-ee-uh-net ]

noun

1. a puppet manipulated from above by strings attached to its jointed limbs.

marionette

/ ˌmærɪəˈnɛt /

noun

1. an articulated puppet or doll whose jointed limbs are moved by strings

Word History and Origins

Origin of marionette¹

1610–20; < French marionnette, equivalent to Marion (diminutive of Marie Mary) + -ette -ette

Word History and Origins

Origin of marionette¹

C17: from French, from Marion, diminutive of Marie Mary + -ette

Example Sentences

Depending on the dose of dopamine, the chip controlled the limb like a marionette.

From Singularity Hub 

Remy is, of course, an animated talking rat, and this is a movie that presumes, among other things, that a human body is an elaborate marionette operated by hair.

From Eater

She should have spent that summer morning swimming in a pool or running around a playground, not dangling from a machine like a marionette.

From Washington Post

A porcelain marionette on the shelf of your childhood bedroom.

From Quartz

Have you ever been on a film and felt manipulated by a director, sort of like a marionette?

From The Daily Beast

Dodi, I remember, looked like a mangled marionette, his limbs twisted in impossible positions.

From The Daily Beast

He had gone on to such projects as a 28-foot marionette for the 1965 Balanchine production of Don Quixote.

From The Daily Beast

How did anyone know we were going to have a marionette show?

From Project Gutenberg

You do not seem to be aware of the identity of the marionette who has just been killed.

From Project Gutenberg

If all these fail how can a marionette be expected to succeed?

From Project Gutenberg

He held by the hand a little French girl, dark, small, looking almost like a marionette in her slim tailor-made costume.

From Project Gutenberg

Mr. Chamberlain had caught the infection, and was salaaming across the world to Mr. Kruger, like a marionette out of a box.

From Project Gutenberg