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Added 7 October 2026

pen

/pɛn/ symbol

Categories: ThingsAnimalsEveryday Words

In Latin: hara Wiktionary

symbol Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about pen at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. Former ISO 639-3 language code for Penesak.

noun

  1. An enclosure (enclosed area) used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
    There are two steers in the third pen.
  2. A penitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.
    They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.
  3. The bullpen.
    Two righties are up in the pen.

verb

  1. To enclose in a pen.

noun

  1. A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
    He took notes with a pen.
  2. A writer, or their style.
    He has a sharp pen.
  3. Marks of ink left by a pen.
    He's unhappy because he got pen on his new shirt.

Origin

From Middle English pen, penne (“enclosure for animals”), from Old English penn (“enclosure, fold, pen”), from Proto-Germanic *pennō, *pannijō (“pin, bolt, nail, tack”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pin. Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to “enclosure for persons” (1845), later influenced by penitentiary (“prison”), being analyzed as an abbreviation (1884).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: playpenpenitentiarycomposeinditewritepaddockcorralbasinstybullpenwiperfelt

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