Phenomenal

How to spell phenomenal

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce phenomenal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does phenomenal mean?

1. adjectiveExtraordinary or remarkable; far beyond what is usual.

Phenomenal in a sentence

• The small bakery achieved phenomenal sales in its first month.

• Her recovery after the surgery was simply phenomenal.

Where does phenomenal come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek phainomenon, meaning 'a thing that appears or is observed', which in turn grew from the verb phainein, 'to show' or 'to bring to light'. Greek philosophers used the noun for whatever could be perceived by the senses, as opposed to what could only be reasoned about. Latin took it on as phaenomenon, and English borrowed the noun 'phenomenon' in the early 1600s for an observable fact or remarkable occurrence. The adjective 'phenomenal' followed, first meaning 'relating to perceptible phenomena' and only later drifting into its everyday sense of 'extraordinary' or 'remarkable', since the things people called phenomena tended to be striking. The 'ph' spelling for an /f/ sound is the fingerprint of that Greek ancestry, and the easily slurred middle vowels in phe-nom-e-nal are what most often trip up writers.

How the word is built

• phenomen- (from Greek phainomenon: a thing that appears)
• -al (adjective suffix)