Encore

How to spell encore

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce encore

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does encore mean?

1. nounAn additional or repeated performance given in response to an audience's demand.
2. interjectionA call shouted by an audience demanding a further performance.

Encore in a sentence

• noun

  The band returned for a three-song encore after the lights dimmed.

• interjection

  Shouts of encore echoed across the concert hall as the curtain fell.

• noun

  The pianist played a short Chopin piece as an encore.

• interjection

  The fans rose to their feet, chanting encore in unison.

Where does encore come from?

Language of origin: French

Encore came into English in the early 1700s straight from French, where it is the ordinary adverb meaning 'again' or 'still'. The French word descends from the Latin phrase hanc horam, which literally meant 'this hour' or 'to this hour', a way of saying 'up to now' that softened over centuries into the sense 'yet again'. British and other audiences began shouting 'encore!' to demand that a performer repeat a piece, even though French speakers themselves use 'bis' for that purpose; the English crowd had simply borrowed the handy French word for 'again'. From that theatrical shout the noun grew, naming the repeated or extra performance itself, and a verb followed soon after. The spelling trap is purely French: the silent en- opening and the -ore ending have no English logic, so the word must be remembered as a borrowed whole.

How the word is built

• en- (in/into)
• core (from Latin hanc horam: this hour, hence 'again')