Patriots

How to spell patriots

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce patriots

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does patriots mean?

1. nounPeople who strongly support and are devoted to their own country.

Patriots in a sentence

• The memorial honours the patriots who fought for independence.

• A small group of patriots gathered in the square waving flags.

Where does patriots come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek patriotes, meaning 'fellow countryman', which was built on patrios, 'of one's fathers', and ultimately on pater, the ordinary Greek word for 'father'. The underlying idea was someone who shared the same fatherland or ancestral home. Late Latin took it up as patriota, and French passed it into English as patriote during the late 1500s, at first simply meaning a compatriot before it narrowed to the modern sense of someone devoted to their country. The shared pater root links it to a large family of English words such as paternal, patron, and even patriarch. The spelling trap lies in that quiet -ri- in the middle and the -ot ending, since the word sounds smoother than it looks on the page.

How the word is built

• patri- (from Greek patris: fatherland)
• -ot (one who belongs to)
• -s (plural)