pendant
Americannoun
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a hanging ornament, as an earring or the main piece suspended from a necklace.
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an ornament suspended from a roof, vault, or ceiling.
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a hanging electrical lighting fixture; chandelier.
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that by which something is suspended, as the ringed stem of a watch.
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a match, parallel, companion, or counterpart.
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Nautical. Also a length of rope attached to a masthead, the end of a yardarm, etc., and having a block or thimble secured to its free end.
adjective
noun
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an ornament that hangs from a piece of jewellery
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a necklace with such an ornament
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a hanging light, esp a chandelier
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a carved ornament that is suspended from a ceiling or roof
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something that matches or complements something else
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Also called: pennant. nautical a length of wire or rope secured at one end to a mast or spar and having a block or other fitting at the lower end
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pendant
1300–50; Middle English pendaunt < Anglo-French; Middle French pendant, noun use of present participle of pendre to hang < Vulgar Latin *pendere for Latin pendēre. See pend, -ant
Explanation
If you’re wearing a necklace with a large gold heart on a delicate chain, then you have a pendant, an ornament that hangs on a chain. The word pendant traces back to the Latin word, pendere, meaning "to hang," which tips you off that pendant is a word describing something that hangs, like an ornament that hangs on a chain or a type of light that hangs from the ceiling. As an adjective, pendant means "held from above," like the pendant rock formations that hang from the cave's ceiling.
Vocabulary lists containing pendant
Stargirl
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 1
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On the Come Up
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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:
The Financial Times previously reported some details of the new Meta glasses feature and The Information earlier reported on the company’s work on a potential AI pendant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The top lifts off and converts into a pendant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
The most obvious example is a £400 pendant bought from a Shetland jeweller they visited together.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
For Nancy’s 70th birthday, Debbie bought her friend a necklace with a pendant holding a Shift Lock key from a typewriter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
This is the moment I would have held the pendant up to the sun.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
"We recovered two pendants: one made from a shell and another from a brown bear tooth," said Tornero.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
The highlight is the entry, which is vast and high, filled with modern handblown glass pendants with LED filaments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
Hansen will carry four Moon-shaped pendants for his wife and three children, engraved with the phrase "Moon and back" and set with their birthstones.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
"Go make some real friends" became common graffiti on New York City subway ads for Friend brand AI pendants late last year to protest "surveillance capitalism."
From Barron's ● Jan. 11, 2026
They were separated and made into rings and pendants for unmarried daughters’ dowries.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
