Trophies

How to spell trophies

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trophies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trophies mean?

1. nounCups, medals, or other objects awarded as a sign of victory or achievement.

Trophies in a sentence

• The club kept its trophies in a glass cabinet near the entrance.

• Dozens of trophies from past tournaments lined the shelves above his desk.

Where does trophies come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the ancient Greek tropaion, which named a monument set up on a battlefield to mark the spot where the enemy had been turned back. That noun grew from trope, meaning 'a turning' or 'a rout', from the verb trepein 'to turn', because the trophy literally marked the place where the opposing army turned and fled. The Romans borrowed it as trophaeum, broadening it to any memorial of victory, and French shaped it into trophee. English took it up in the late 1400s, gradually softening the meaning from a war memorial to any prize or cup awarded for success. The spelling trap lives in the plural: the singular trophy ends in a consonant plus -y, so the -y becomes -ies, giving trophies rather than the tempting trophys.

How the word is built

• troph- (from Greek tropaion: monument to a routed enemy)
• -y (noun, here pluralised to -ies)