Serene

How to spell serene

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce serene

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does serene mean?

1. adjectiveCalm, peaceful, and untroubled.

Serene in a sentence

• The lake looked perfectly serene in the early morning light.

• She stayed serene even as the deadline approached.

Where does serene come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Serene comes from the Latin serenus, an adjective that originally described the weather: a sky that was clear, bright, and cloudless, or a sea that was calm and untroubled. From describing fair weather, the Latin word naturally widened to describe a calm and tranquil state of mind, since an unruffled person is much like an unclouded sky. English adopted it in the late 1400s, at first often in the literal weather sense before the figurative meaning of inner calm took over. The same root survives in the noun 'serenity' and in the verb 'serenade', which traces back through Italian to the idea of music performed under a clear evening sky. The spelling trap is the unstressed first syllable, which sounds like a vague 'suh' and tempts writers toward 'ser-' versus 'sir-', while the long stressed ending settles firmly on '-ene'.

How the word is built

• seren- (from Latin serenus: clear, calm, untroubled)
• -e (English adjective spelling reflecting the Latin ending)