Renown

How to spell renown

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce renown

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does renown mean?

1. nounThe condition of being widely known and respected; fame or high reputation.

Renown in a sentence

• The chef earned international renown for her seafood dishes.

• The university gained renown for its medical research.

Where does renown come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reached English in the early 1300s from Anglo-French and Old French renoun, a noun built on the verb renomer, meaning 'to make famous' or literally 'to name again and again'. That verb combined the prefix re-, used here for repeated or emphatic action, with nomer 'to name', which descends from the Latin nominare 'to name' and ultimately from nomen 'name'. The underlying idea is beautifully literal: a person of renown is someone whose name is repeatedly spoken by others. The same nomen root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'nominate', 'nominal', and 'noun', all of which circle around the act of naming. The unexpected spelling trap is the silent run into '-own', because the modern form looks nothing like its 'name' origins, yet it still carries that original sense of a name passed from mouth to mouth.

How the word is built

• re- (again, intensive)
• nown (to name, from Old French nomer, from Latin nominare 'to name')