Noteworthy

How to spell noteworthy

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce noteworthy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does noteworthy mean?

1. adjectiveDeserving attention or notice because it is interesting, important, or unusual.

Noteworthy in a sentence

• The quarterly report contained one noteworthy change in the pricing strategy.

• Her promotion was the most noteworthy event at the office this year.

Where does noteworthy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is an English compound, stitched together from two older pieces. The first half, 'note', traces back to the Latin nota, meaning a mark, a sign, or a written observation, which entered English through Old French in the medieval period. The second half is the much older native element 'worthy', built on the Old English weorth, meaning 'value' or 'merit', combined with the adjective-forming ending -y; the same weorth still sits inside everyday words like 'worth' and 'worthwhile'. By joining them, English speakers produced a tidy adjective meaning 'worth taking note of', a pattern of compounding that flourished from the seventeenth century onward. The spelling trap is simply seeing it as a single solid word rather than two pieces, since both 'note' and 'worthy' look complete on their own.

How the word is built

• note (a mark or observation, from Latin nota)
• worthy (deserving, from Old English weorth 'value'
• -y)