Deadpan
adj, adv, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A style of comedic delivery in which something humorous is said or done while not exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression. uncountable
"MAREK: But really the deadpan is key. You can essentially trick people into laughing at nothing."
- 1 To express (something) in an impassive or expressionless manner.
"Kidd deadpanned it, stared glassily back at Maitland."
- 1 Deliberately impassive or expressionless.
"a deadpan face or look"
- 2 Having such a face or look.
"The comedian remained deadpan."
- 1 deliberately impassive in manner wordnet
- 1 In a deadpan manner.
"A city-hired consultant from a firm called Urban Futures was booed repeatedly by the agitated homeowners as he talked deadpan, in bureaucratese, about his firm's "evidentiary record" pointing to blight in the neighborhood."
- 1 without betraying any feeling wordnet
Example
More examples""Psst! Mary! Can I borrow a sheet of notebook paper?" Tom tapped Mary's shoulder with his pencil's eraser. "Do you intend to write on it?" Mary asked Tom in a deadpan tone. "Yeah." "Then I don't want it back." Mary handed Tom a sheet of notebook paper."
Etymology
From dead + pan (“face”).
Related phrases
More for "deadpan"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.