Pynchon

American

[pin-chuhn] / ˈpɪn tʃən /

noun

Thomas, born 1937, U.S. novelist.
William, 1590?–1662, English colonist in America.

Pynchon British

/ ˈpɪntʃən /

noun

Thomas (Ruggles). born 1937, US novelist, author of V (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1967), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), Mason and Dixon (1997), and Against the Day (2006)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Pynchon is so prophetic, he looked at California in 1966 and already saw a silicon chip.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

It is loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel "Vineland"

From Barron's • Feb. 22, 2026

He belonged to a fraternity—half cult, half mainstream—that extended from Richard Brautigan to Thomas Pynchon, with Kurt Vonnegut in between.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

Controversy at the Smithsonian, a Jazz Age caper from Thomas Pynchon, Rome’s long history and more.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

“And I’m a big fan of Pynchon, so he’s an influence.”

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023