Acclaimed

How to spell acclaimed

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce acclaimed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does acclaimed mean?

1. adjectivePraised enthusiastically and publicly, especially by critics or the wider public.
2. verbPraised someone or something loudly and publicly, or declared enthusiastically.

Acclaimed in a sentence

• adjective

  The acclaimed novelist signed copies at the bookshop all afternoon.

• verb

  Reviewers acclaimed the restaurant for its inventive menu.

• adjective

  Critics packed the cinema for the director's most acclaimed film.

• verb

  The board acclaimed her plan as the boldest in years.

Where does acclaimed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb acclamare, formed from ad, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and clamare, meaning 'to shout' or 'cry out'. In Roman use it described a crowd shouting approval at a public figure, literally calling out toward someone in praise. English borrowed the verb in the 1600s, at first spelled 'acclame' and influenced by the French and the related word 'claim', before settling on the 'acclaim' form with its doubled c carried over from the Latin prefix assimilating to the c of clamare. The same clamare root gives us 'clamour', 'exclaim', and 'proclaim', all of which involve loud or public calling. Over time the loud shouting sense softened into the modern meaning of enthusiastic public praise, and the past form 'acclaimed' became a stock adjective for works and people that critics celebrate. The spelling trap is precisely that doubled c followed by the silent-looking 'ai' of claim, which writers often reduce to a single c.

How the word is built

• ac- (variant of ad-: to, toward)
• claim (from Latin clamare: to shout, cry out)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)