Honor

How to spell honor

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce honor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does honor mean?

1. nounHigh public respect, esteem, or recognition given to a person for their character or achievements.
2. verbTo regard with great respect, or to fulfill an obligation or commitment.

Honor in a sentence

• noun

  The veteran received the medal as a mark of honor for his service.

• verb

  The company agreed to honor the original warranty despite the merger.

• noun

  It was a great honor to be chosen as keynote speaker at the conference.

• verb

  Many families gather each year to honor the memory of their ancestors.

Where does honor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin honor (also written honos), which meant high public esteem, official dignity, or a mark of distinction; in Roman life it covered both the respect a person earned and the elected offices they held. It passed into Old French as honur or onor and was borrowed into English in the early 1200s, at first with the sense of fame, reputation, and noble rank. Over the centuries the meaning broadened to take in personal integrity, moral uprightness, and the acts of respect we pay to others. The American spelling honor reflects a deliberate nineteenth-century simplification, championed by lexicographer Noah Webster, who stripped the silent French u from a whole family of words; British and Canadian writers kept the older honour. That single missing u is the entire spelling trap, and it is why American writers must resist the -our pattern they see in imported media.

How the word is built

• honor (from Latin honor: esteem, public regard); the American spelling drops the British -our ending

British and American spelling

Honor is the American spelling. British English spells it honour.