marionette
Other forms: marionettes
Use the noun marionette to describe a puppet that's manipulated with strings from above a stage. You might see a marionette show at a child's birthday party.
A marionette is a very specific kind of puppet, one that's operated with sticks and wires or strings that move its arms, legs, and head in a nearly lifelike way. Marionettes have been around for centuries, at least since the ancient Greeks used them around 500 BC. The word marionette means "little little Mary" in French, a reference to one of the earliest known marionette characters, a puppet version of the Virgin Mary.
-
a small figure of a person operated from above with strings by a puppeteer
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing marionette
After meeting the Tucks, a family that is able to live forever after drinking from a magical spring, Winnie Foster questions whether immortality is a blessing or a curse.
A borrowing from Middle French, -ette is a diminutive suffix. There are two widely used senses of this suffix: the first denotes the smallness of an object and the second refers to a woman carrying out the role of the root word.
During World War II, thirteen-year-old Michael and his family infiltrate Nazi organizations to help the Allies defeat Hitler.