Renaissance

How to spell renaissance

11 letters · 3 syllables

9 of the 21 people asked to spell renaissance in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is rennaissance. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

rennaissance renaissance

What people typed instead

• rennaissance5 people
• rennaisance4 people

How to pronounce renaissance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does renaissance mean?

1. nounA revival of, or renewed interest in, art, culture, learning, or activity, especially the great European movement that began in fourteenth-century Italy.

Renaissance in a sentence

• The museum exhibition traced painting from the renaissance to the modern era.

• The old mill district is enjoying a renaissance thanks to new cafes and studios.

Where does renaissance come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English directly from French, where renaissance means literally 'rebirth'. It was built from the verb renaître, 'to be born again', which traces back to the Latin renasci, formed from re- meaning 'again' and nasci meaning 'to be born'. The same nasci root sits behind a whole family of English words including 'nascent', 'native', and 'natal', all of which carry the idea of being born or beginning. English borrowed renaissance fairly late, in the early nineteenth century, when historians needed a name for the great revival of art and learning that began in fourteenth-century Italy. The French spelling was kept intact, which is why the word still carries that tricky double-s and the soft -ance ending rather than an English-style respelling; remembering the buried word 'naissance' (birth) inside it helps fix that vowel sequence.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• naiss- (from French naître / Latin nasci: to be born)
• -ance (noun-forming suffix)