Percival
Americannoun
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Arthurian Legend. Also Percivale a knight of King Arthur's court who sought the Holy Grail: comparable to Parzival or Parsifal in Teutonic legend.
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a male given name.
noun
Etymology
Origin of Percival
From Old French Perceval, of disputed origin; perhaps literally “pierce the valley” ( see pierce ( def. ), vale ( def. )) or “through this valley” (from par “through” + cel “this” + val “valley”; see per ( def. )); alternatively, an alteration of Welsh Peredur
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.
“When a judge sentences a defendant, the defendant is taken into custody,” Percival wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
On Tuesday its students disrupted, heckled and tried to shout down a speech by Homeland Security general counsel James Percival.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
In the 1890s, long-simmering dreams of an inhabited Mars found a foothold in the U.S., fanned by wealthy astronomer Percival Lowell, who built an Arizona observatory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Garner, 31, looked down as Percival read a statement, in which she said he had denied her grandfather a "dignified death".
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
“A long-lost diary,” he continued, “regarding a doomed voyage undertaken by Lord Fredrick Ashton’s great-grandfather, Admiral Percival Racine Ashton. According to the archives, the book is part of the holdings of the Ashton library.”
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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