August
adjectiveInspiring reverence or admiration through dignity, grandeur, or distinguished rank.
How to spell august
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce august
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does august mean?
- adjectiveInspiring reverence or admiration through dignity, grandeur, or distinguished rank.
- nounThe eighth month of the year, following July and preceding September.
August in a sentence
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adjective
The gallery had an august collection of paintings on loan from royal estates.
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noun
The office closes for two weeks every august for summer holidays.
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adjective
She addressed the august panel of judges with quiet confidence.
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noun
Their flights to Spain are always more expensive in august.
Where does august come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes straight from the Latin adjective augustus, meaning 'venerable', 'majestic', or 'worthy of reverence'. That word was closely tied to augere, the Latin verb meaning 'to increase' or 'to enlarge', and also to the noun augur, the priest who read omens; the underlying idea was of something consecrated and made greater by sacred approval. The Roman senate awarded the title Augustus to Octavian in 27 BC as a mark of supreme dignity, and the month we call August was renamed in his honour, which is why the noble adjective and the eighth month share exactly the same spelling. English borrowed the adjective in the early 1600s with its sense of grand and dignified intact. A useful spelling anchor is the link to 'augment', which carries the same au-g root meaning 'to increase'.
How the word is built
- from Latin augustus (venerable, majestic), itself related to augere (to increase); treated in English as a single root with no separable affixes
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