Opus

How to spell opus

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce opus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does opus mean?

1. nounA single artistic work, especially a musical composition, often identified by a number.

Opus in a sentence

• The pianist closed the recital with a late opus by the composer.

• Critics agreed that the novel was her finest opus to date.

Where does opus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is Latin pure and simple: opus literally meant 'a work' or 'a piece of labour', the product of someone's effort. The same root gave Latin its verb operari, 'to work', which is why opus is a close relative of everyday English words such as 'operate', 'operation', and 'cooperate', all of which carry the idea of putting in work. Its own plural in Latin was opera, and that very plural became the separate English word 'opera', a 'work' of staged music. English took opus directly in the 1600s, chiefly among musicians and scholars, who used it to label a composer's numbered compositions, as in 'Opus 9'. The grand phrase 'magnum opus', meaning 'great work', keeps the original Latin alive and explains why the short, four-letter spelling looks so plain: it never passed through French to be reshaped, so what you write is the unaltered Latin word.

How the word is built

• opus (Latin: a work, labour); a Latin root noun borrowed whole, with no prefix or suffix