supplicant - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

supplicant (comparative more supplicant, superlative most supplicant)

  • begging, pleading, supplicating

Noun

supplicant (plural supplicants)

  • one who comes to humbly ask or petition
    • It recalled all the vivid hopes and beliefs of her childhood, when she was wont to kneel before some lovely image, till the face seemed to smile encouragement, and the little supplicant felt as if beneath a mother’s eye.1
  • (networking) A device attempting to authenticate itself to an 802.11 network.

Etymology

From Latin supplicans (“supplicating, bowing down”), from supplicō (“kneel, bow down, request”), from sub- (“lower”) + plicō (“fold”).

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA: /ˈsʌplɪkənt/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Hyphenation: sup‧pli‧cant

Printed 2026-07-08.

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Footnotes

  1. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 185: