pennant
Americannoun
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pennants
plural
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a long, tapering flag or burgee of distinctive form and special significance, borne on naval or other vessels and used in signaling or for identification.
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any relatively long, tapering flag.
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a flag serving as an emblem of victory or championship, especially in baseball.
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Music. hook.
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Nautical. pendant.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pennant
Explanation
A pennant is a long flag that tapers at one end. You might see a pennant flying on a navy ship, being waved in the crowd of spectators at a baseball game, or hanging on a sporty kid’s bedroom wall. Nautical pennants were the original triangular or tapered flags, and they are still flown on most active warships. Sporting pennants also have a long history, and were once commonly given as prizes or trophies and waved by fans in the stands at high school and college sporting events. Sports teams can still win a pennant, but pennants are often purchased as souvenirs at games and wind up on fans’ walls.
Vocabulary lists containing pennant
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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:
Three months later, they fired their general manager in the heat of a pennant race.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Especially not after a string of disappointing postseason exits since winning the NL pennant in 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the real worry about the U.S. 10-year chart isn’t just the pennant pattern, it comes when you zoom way out, to put it in a generational perspective.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
The Braves are off to a good start in 2026 as they lead the National League East with an 18-8 record and are a good bet to contend for the league pennant.
From Barron's ● Apr. 23, 2026
He’d had a button and a pennant collection, a thousand pennies in a large mason jar, a fishbowl, and a model tin lizzie hung from a strand of wire in one corner.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
His Red Special presidential campaign train in 1908 and his Socialist Party conventions were riots of red flags, pennants and bunting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
There was also no exchange of pennants between Republic of Ireland captain Dara O'Shea and Israel skipper Manor Solomon, who did not shake hands.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Many chart watchers believe pennants tend to appear around the middle of a trend.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
He spent 22 seasons in the major leagues, most with the Giants in New York and San Francisco, leading the team to three National League pennants and a World Series championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
There were pennants from his ski teams and photos of his family, all lined up on skis on top of a mountain.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
