Proclamation

How to spell proclamation

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce proclamation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does proclamation mean?

1. nounA formal, official public announcement, especially one issued by a government or head of state.

Proclamation in a sentence

• The king signed a proclamation declaring a national day of mourning.

• The mayor read the proclamation aloud at the town square.

Where does proclamation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin proclamatio, the act of crying out in public, which was formed from the verb proclamare. That verb joins the prefix pro-, meaning 'forth' or 'out', to clamare, meaning 'to call or cry aloud'. The literal sense was therefore to shout something out so that everyone could hear it, which suited an age when official news was announced by a herald reading it aloud in the town square. English took the word in during the late 1300s and early 1400s, largely by way of Old French proclamacion, and kept the formal flavour of a public, authoritative announcement. The same clamare root echoes in the everyday relatives 'claim', 'exclaim', and 'clamour', and noticing that shared 'clam' spelling is a handy way to remember that proclamation is spelled with that same chunk rather than 'claim'.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, out)
• clam (to call, cry out)
• -ation (noun of action)