marionette
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of marionette
1610–20; < French marionnette, equivalent to Marion (diminutive of Marie Mary) + -ette -ette
Explanation
Use the noun marionette to describe a puppet that's manipulated with strings from above a stage. You might see a marionette show at a child's birthday party. A marionette is a very specific kind of puppet, one that's operated with sticks and wires or strings that move its arms, legs, and head in a nearly lifelike way. Marionettes have been around for centuries, at least since the ancient Greeks used them around 500 BC. The word marionette means "little little Mary" in French, a reference to one of the earliest known marionette characters, a puppet version of the Virgin Mary.
Vocabulary lists containing marionette
Tuck Everlasting
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Power Suffix: -ette
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Projekt 1065
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At one point, he seems to become a marionette: the vertical line of the microphone stand dividing him in two, with gyrating arms and legs seemingly independent of each other.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
A classic marionette might have eight to 10 strings.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
“You’ve probably seen that famous photo of Albert Einstein holding a marionette of himself. That was a marionette that those guys made at the Turnabout Theater.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2023
"The marionette is like the Stradivari of the puppet world," said Mark Mander, producer and director of Cinderella.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2022
Her mind functioned like a wooden mind, her body moved crookedly like a badly operated marionette, but she went steadily about her business.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
My timings, my instincts, the way that I thought, the way I saw it in my head could be expressed through these really high-tech marionettes on a computer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 18, 2025
The animals could be controlled, in essence, like marionettes.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2024
Think of the pins as marionettes with nylon cords attached to their heads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
An air of phoniness looms over the characters, who appear like marionettes in Coté’s cool, distant tableaux.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
