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PlainSpell

revenant

/ˈɹɛvənənt/noun, adjective

revenant is a noun meaning “Someone who returns from a long absence” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-V-E-N-A-N-T, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of revenant is revenants.

What does revenant mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Someone who returns from a long absence.

    They would not visit this undesirable revenant with his insolent wealth and discreditable origin.

  2. 2

    A person or thing reborn.

  3. 3

    A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.

adjective

  1. 1

    Returning.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce revenant?

  • US /ˈɹɛvənənt/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-revenant.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of revenant

  • revenants plural
  • more revenant comparative
  • most revenant superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is revenant?

Revenant appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 54,808th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Revenant in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrevenant, revenante (someone who returns from a long absence)
GermanHeimkehrer, Rückkehrer (someone who returns from a long absence), Wiedergänger (supernatural being)
Portugueseaparecido, aparecida (someone who returns from a long absence), zumbi, fantasma (supernatural being), renascido, renascida (someone reborn)
Spanishaparecido, aparecida, hijo pródigo, hija pródiga (someone who returns from a long absence), renacido, renacida (someone reborn)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does revenant come from?

19th century. From French revenant, the present participle of revenir (“to return”). Compare revenue.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).