pontoon
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pontoon¹
- /pɒnˈtuːn/
Rhymes with -uːn
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Middle French ponton, from Old French ponton, from Latin pontō, pontōnem (“ferryboat”), from pōns (“bridge”).
noun pontoons
- A flat-bottomed boat or other floating structure used as a buoyant support for a temporary bridge, dock or landing stage. Thanks to the previous experience of the chief performers, to careful preparation and rehearsal, and to perfect weather conditions, they watched in breath-bated silence the spectacle of the huge bulk moving without a hitch into position over the temporary pier caps on which it settled as water balla
-
A bridge with floating supports.
Similar: pontoon bridge
- A box used to raise a sunken vessel. Near-synonyms: caisson, camel, sea camel
- A float of a seaplane.
- A lighter or barge used for loading or unloading ships.
pontoon²
- /pɒnˈtuːn/
Rhymes with -uːn
Where it comes from
Probably from vingt-un, an obsolete variant of vingt-et-un (“twenty-one”), from French.
noun pontoons
-
A card game in which the object is to obtain cards whose value adds up to, or nearly to, 21 but not exceed it.
Similar: vingt-et-un
-
A two-card hand totalling 21 in this game.
Similar: natural
Translations
Talk about this word "pontoon." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/pontoon. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. pontoon. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/pontoon "pontoon." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/pontoon.Cite this
@misc{pontoon_2026,
title = {pontoon},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/pontoon},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
