supplicant
Americanadjective
noun
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of supplicant
1590–1600; < Latin supplicant- (stem of supplicāns ), present participle of supplicāre to supplicate; see -ant; doublet of suppliant
Explanation
If you pray every night to be accepted to your dream college, you can call yourself a supplicant, or a person who asks humbly for something. A supplicant can be a fervently religious person who prays to God for help with a problem, and it can also be someone who begs earnestly for something he or she wants. A younger brother entreating his sister to be allowed in her tree house could be described as a supplicant. The Latin root word is supplicantem, "plead humbly."
Vocabulary lists containing supplicant
The Shining
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Grendel
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"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane
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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.
Four years of war and economic isolation have turned Russian President Vladimir Putin into a supplicant in a relationship dominated by China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
This time, therefore, it was the Russian leader who came to China's capital as the supplicant.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2022
She returns to them here like a supplicant at her prayer book: begging to understand them even just a little bit more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2021
When they ask a witness if he believes in the Triad, they do so with a quivering tone, as if they were priests asking a supplicant if he believes in God.
From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2021
In contrast to the Catholicism of school, the Mexican Catholicism of home was less concerned with man the sinner than with man the supplicant.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
