• (Received Pronunciation,General American)IPA^(key):/pɛn/

• Audio(General American):

  (file)

• Audio(US,Inland Northern American):

  (file)

• (pin–pen merger)IPA^(key):/pɪn/
• Homophone:pin(pin–pen merger)
• Rhymes:-ɛn

FromMiddle Englishpen,penne(“enclosure for animals”), fromOld Englishpenn(“enclosure, fold, pen”), fromProto-Germanic*pennō,*pannijō(“pin, bolt, nail, tack”), fromProto-Indo-European*bend-(“pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related topin.

Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to “enclosure for persons” (1845), later influenced bypenitentiary(“prison”), being analyzed as an abbreviation (1884).^[1]

pen (pluralpens)

2. Anenclosure (enclosed area) used to containdomesticated animals, especiallysheep orcattle.

   There are two steers in the thirdpen.

3. (slang) Apenitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.

   They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in thepen again.

4. (baseball) Thebullpen.

   Two righties are up in thepen.

• pin

FromMiddle Englishpennen, fromOld English*pennian(“to close, lock, bolt”,attested inonpennian(“to open”)), derived frompenn (see above). Akin toLow Germanpennen(“to secure a door with a bolt”).

pen (third-person singular simple presentpens,present participlepenning,simple past and past participlepennedorpent)

1. (transitive) Toenclose in apen.
   • 1667,John Milton, “Book IV”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     Watching where shepherdspen their flocks at eve.

• pen up
• pent
• pent-up

FromMiddle Englishpenne, fromAnglo-Normanpenne, fromOld Frenchpenne, fromLatinpenna(“feather”), fromProto-Indo-European*péth₂r̥ ~ pth₂én-(“feather, wing”), from*peth₂-(“to rush, fly”) (from whichpetition). Proto-Indo-European base also root of*petra-, from whichAncient Greekπτερόν(pterón,“wing”) (whencepterodactyl),Sanskritपत्रम्(patram,“wing, feather”),Old Church Slavonicперо(pero,“pen”),Old Norsefjǫðr,Old Englishfeðer (Modern Englishfeather);^[1] note the /p/ → /f/ Germanic sound change.

Doublet ofpanne,penna, andpinna. Seefeather andπέτομαι(pétomai) for more.

pen (pluralpens)

2. A tool, originally made from afeather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used towrite or make marks.

   He took notes with apen.

3. (figurative) A writer, or their style.

   He has a sharppen.

   • 1655,Thomas Fuller,The Church-history of Britain; […], London:[…] Iohn Williams […],→OCLC,(please specify |book=I to XI):

     those learnedpens

4. (colloquial) Marks of ink left by a pen.

   He's unhappy because he gotpen on his new shirt.

5. Alight pen.
6. (zoology) The internalcartilage skeleton of asquid, shaped like a pen.
   • 2017, Danna Staaf,Squid Empire, ForeEdge,→ISBN, page117:

     Apen is nothing more complex than a decalcified shell, so one mutation of the genes that controlled calcification could be all it took.

7. (nowrare,poetic,dialectal) Afeather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.
   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC:

     And eke thepennes, that did his pineons bynd,
     Were like mayne-yards, with flying canuas lynd,
     With which whenas him liſt the ayre to beat[…]

8. (poetic) Awing.
   • 1667,John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     but feather'd soon and fledge
     They summed theirpens, and soaring the air sublime

9. Asyringe-like device forinjecting a dose of medication such asinsulin orepinephrine.(SeeInjector pen.)
   • 2023 August 29, Geri Krotow,A Wasp in the Woods, Tule Publishing,→ISBN:

     "I'm sure she had more than one EpiPen[…]" "But she didn't have one when she got stung or she'd have used it." By all appearances, Mariah died in the woods,[…] If she managed to grab thepen found under her leg from her bag or pocket, she never discharged it. But Crystal doesn't have these details. "Doesn't it make sense that she kept an extrapen in her cupboard, and one in her bag? The extrapen fell out, is all."

10. Short forvapor pen(“electronic cigarette”).

    a dabpen; a waxpen

pen (third-person singular simple presentpens,present participlepenning,simple past and past participlepenned)

1. (transitive) Towrite (an article, a book, etc.).
   • 2008,BioWare,Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts,→ISBN,→OCLC, PC, scene: Nonuel:

     Prying open the crate, you discover a carefully wrapped, handwritten copy of one of Matriarch Dilinaga's treatises. It is unlikely shepenned it herself, but the flowing brushwork and intricate watercolor illustrations clearly show the hand of a master scribe.

   • 2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, inBBC‎^[1]:

     His two most recent films are last year's Greyhound, a Hanks-penned World War Two thriller in which he plays a naval commander, and now News of the World, a Western set in the years immediately following the close of the US Civil War, directed by Paul Greengrass, which is premiering around the world on Netflix tomorrow.

   • 2021 December 29, Conrad Landin, “Glasgow Subway: a city institution”, inRAIL, number947, page45:

     It was in this era, too, that author andScotland the Brave songwriter Cliff HanleypennedThe Glasgow Underground, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the Subway in song.

Origin uncertain. Comparehen.

pen (pluralpens)

1. A femaleswan.

• swaness(rare)

Clipping ofpenalty.

pen (pluralpens)

1. (soccer,slang)Penalty.

Clipping ofpenetration.

pen (pluralpens)

1. (computing,informal)Penetration.

• pen test

By incorrect analogy withman →men.

pen (uncountable)

2. (humorous)plural ofpan

• pin-pen merger

• NEP,Nep,PNe,nep

• pan,pey

Inherited fromRomaniphen.

• IPA^(key):[ˈpʰen],[ˈpen],[pʰɛn]

pen

1. sister

   Synonyms:minnipen,rakla

   Sa see pal te pen? ―(please add an English translation of this usage example)

• “pen”, inAngloromani Dictionary‎^[2], The Manchester Romani Project,2004-2006, page132

FromProto-Brythonic*penn, fromProto-Celtic*kʷennom, of uncertain derivation.

pen

1. head
2. top,summit

• Attested in Cumbric toponymic compounds and phrasal names (Pen-y-Ghent)

From lateOld Norsepenni, fromLatinpenna(“feather”).

• IPA^(key):/pɛnˀ/,[pʰɛnˀ]

pen c (singular definitepennen,plural indefinitepenne)

1. pen
2. quill
3. pane,peen

pen (neuterpent,plural and definite singular attributivepene,comparativepenere,superlative (predicative)penest,superlative (attributive)peneste)

1. Obsolete spelling ofpæn.

FromMiddle Dutchpenne, ultimately fromLatinpenna.Thisetymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key):/pɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation:pen
• Rhymes:-ɛn

pen f (pluralpennen,diminutivepennetje n)

1. alongfeather of abird
2. pen(writing utensil)
3. pin

   Synonym:pin

• Afrikaans:pen
• Negerhollands:pen
• → Caribbean Hindustani:pen
• → Caribbean Javanese:pèn
• → Indonesian:pen
• → Japanese:ペン(pen)
• → Papiamentu:pèn,pen,pènchi,pennetsje(from the diminutive)
• → Sranan Tongo:pen
  • → Saramaccan:peni

• nep

• IPA^(key):/pɛ̃/

FromFrenchpain(“bread”).

pen

1. bread

• pen griye(“toast”)
• pen mayi(“corncake”)

FromFrenchpin.

pen

1. Apine tree, especially theHispaniola pine.

• Targète, Jean and Urciolo, Raphael G.Haitian Creole-English dictionary (1993;→ISBN)

• IPA^(key):[ˈpɛn]
• Hyphenation:pèn

FromDutchpen, fromLatinpenna(“feather, pen”).Doublet ofpena.

pèn (pluralpen-pen)

1. (nonstandard)alternative form ofpena(“pen”)
2. (medicine)pin, metal used to fasten or as a bearing

pen

1. (slang)syncopic form ofpengen

• “pen” inKamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta:Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

pen

1. Rōmaji transcription ofペン

pen

1. Nonstandard spelling ofpēn.
2. Nonstandard spelling ofpén.
3. Nonstandard spelling ofpěn.
4. Nonstandard spelling ofpèn.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

pen(Raguileo spelling)

1. tosee

   Synonym:petun

FromAnglo-Normanpenne.

pen

2. Alternative form ofpenne

FromOld Englishpenn, fromProto-Germanic*pennō, perhaps from the root ofpinn(“peg, pin”).

• penne,peyn

• IPA^(key):/pɛn/
• Rhymes:-ɛn

pen

2. Anenclosedstructure forsecuringanimals.

• English:pen
• Scots:pen

• “pen,n.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007, retrieved2018-04-24.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “pen”, inOnline Etymology Dictionary.

pen

1. woman

• Malcolm Ross,Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia,Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

pen

1. coconut, especially one thatcoconut milk can be drunk from

Possibly fromFrench.

pen (neuter singularpent,definite singular and pluralpene,comparativepenere,indefinite superlativepenest,definite superlativepeneste)

1. nice

   pent vær ―nice weather

2. neat
3. beautiful,pretty
4. handsome,good-looking

• “pen” inThe Bokmål Dictionary.

Possibly fromFrench.

pen (neuter singularpent,definite singular and pluralpene,comparativepenare,indefinite superlativepenast,definite superlativepenaste)

1. nice

   pent vêr ―nice weather

2. neat
3. beautiful,pretty
4. handsome,good-looking

• “pen” inThe Nynorsk Dictionary.

FromProto-Celtic*kʷennom.

pen

1. head
   • c. 1200,Latin-Old Cornish Glossary inBritish Library MS Cotton Vespasian A XIV, folio 7 recto:

     Capud.pen.

     Head. —head.

Borrowed fromEnglishpen [drive].^[1][2]

• Hyphenation:pen

pen f (pluralpens)

1. (computing)pen drive,flash drive(small portable device that connects to a computer via a USB port and is used to store and/or transfer data)

   Synonyms:chave de memória,pen-drive

   Comprei umapen de 16 GB. ―I bought a 16 GBflash drive.

Borrowed fromFrenchpince.

pen

1. pincers

pen

1. themselves(third-person plural reflexive pronoun)

FromEnglishpaint.

pen

1. paint

FromEnglishpen.

pen

1. pen

FromEnglishpain.

pen

1. pain
   • 1989,Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea,Jenesis3:16:

     Na God i tokim meri olsem, “Bai mi givim yu bikpela hevi long taim yu gat bel. Na bai yu gat bikpelapen long taim yu karim pikinini. Tasol bai yu gat bikpela laik yet long man bilong yu, na bai em i bosim yu.”

     →New International Version translation

pen (nominative pluralpens)

1. pen

FromMiddle Welsh andOld Welshpenn, fromProto-Brythonic*penn, fromProto-Celtic*kʷennom.

• IPA^(key):/pɛn/
• Rhymes:-ɛn

pen m (pluralpennau)

1. (anatomy)head
2. chief
3. top,apex
4. end,extremity

pen (feminine singularpen,pluralpen,equativepenned,comparativepennach,superlativepennaf)

1. head,chief

   Synonym:prif

2. supreme,principal

   Synonyms:pennol,blaenol

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pen”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies