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pennon.

A long, narrow flag or streamer, often swallowtailed or triangular, usually hung at the top of a helmet or lance, originally the ensign of a knight under the rank of knight banneret, and later of a lancer regiment.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɛnən/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A long, narrow flag or streamer, often swallowtailed or triangular, usually hung at the top of a helmet or lance, originally the ensign of a knight under the rank of knight banneret, and later of a lancer regiment.

    historical
  2. Any banner or flag.

    broadly
  3. Synonym of pinion (“a wing”).

    archaic · broadly · poetic
  4. A heraldic charge in the form of a pennon (sense 1).

    broadly
  5. Synonym of pennant (“a flag or streamer used on a ship”).

    broadly
  6. A Knight Bachelor; also, a soldier who carries an ensign.

    broadly · obsolete
  7. An ornament that dangles or hangs down.

    broadly · obsolete · rare
  8. Something resembling a pennon (sense 1).

    figuratively
Where this word comes from

From Late Middle English pennon, penoun (“long narrow flag attached to a lance or used in other contexts; one who bears a pennon, knight bachelor; plume of feathers; strip around the edge of a shield”), from Anglo-Norman penun (“feather of an arrow”), penoun (“flag attached to a lance”), Middle French pennon, penoun, and Old French penon (“flag attached to a lance”) (modern French pennon), from penne (“feather; wing”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Penne is inherited from Latin penna (“feather (especially a flight feather), pinion; wing”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly (in the sense of spreading out wings)”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.