Anthem

How to spell anthem

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce anthem

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does anthem mean?

1. nounA rousing or solemn song adopted as a symbol of a nation, group, or cause, or a piece of choral church music.

Anthem in a sentence

• The crowd rose to sing the national anthem before the match.

• The choir rehearsed a quiet anthem for the cathedral service.

Where does anthem come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes ultimately from the Greek antiphona, meaning 'things sung in response' or 'sounds answering one another', built from anti, meaning 'against' or 'in return', and phone, meaning 'voice' or 'sound'. It passed into Late Latin as antiphona, the name for a piece of church music sung in alternating parts by two halves of a choir. Old English borrowed it very early as antefn or antemne, and over the centuries of constant use in worship the form was steadily smoothed down through Middle English antem into the modern spelling. The 'th' is something of a historical accident: the original 'f' (from phone) drifted to a 'th' sound in English mouths, and the spelling followed. By the 1500s the meaning had broadened from a religious chant to any rousing song of praise or loyalty, which is why we now speak of a national anthem; the buried Greek phone, 'voice', is still fittingly there in a word about singing.

How the word is built

• anthem (from Greek antiphona: a sung response), with the original 'antiphon' shape worn down to a single word over many centuries