Celebrity

How to spell celebrity

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce celebrity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does celebrity mean?

1. nounA widely known and much-publicised person, especially in entertainment, sport, or media.
2. nounThe condition of being famous or widely celebrated.

Celebrity in a sentence

• The restaurant became popular after a celebrity posted about it online.

• Sudden celebrity changed how she handled her private life.

• Each guest at the charity dinner was a well-known celebrity from television.

• The novel brought the quiet author unexpected celebrity.

Where does celebrity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin celebritas, meaning 'a crowded gathering', 'fame', or 'renown', which was built on the adjective celeber, meaning 'frequented', 'populous', or 'famous'. The underlying idea was a place or person thronged by crowds, so fame was literally the condition of drawing a crowd. English borrowed the word through Old French celebrite in the late 1300s, when it meant the abstract quality of being celebrated rather than a famous individual. The modern sense of a single well-known person did not become common until the nineteenth century, when newspapers began turning notable figures into household names. The same celeber root also gives us 'celebrate', a useful memory hook: a celebrity is someone people celebrate, and both words keep the soft 'c' followed by 'eleb'.

How the word is built

• celebr- (from Latin celeber: famous, much-frequented)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or condition)