Victory

How to spell victory

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce victory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does victory mean?

1. nounSuccess achieved in a contest, battle, competition, or struggle against an opponent.

Victory in a sentence

• The team celebrated their narrow victory over the league leaders.

• The election victory gave the party a clear majority in parliament.

Where does victory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin victoria, meaning 'a conquering' or 'success in battle', which was built on the verb vincere, 'to conquer or overcome', through its past participle stem vict-. The Romans even personified the idea as Victoria, the winged goddess of triumph, whose image was stamped on coins and monuments across the empire. English took the word in during the 1300s by way of Anglo-Norman and Old French 'victorie', and it quickly broadened from purely military triumph to success in any contest, argument, or struggle. The same vincere root survives in a family of relatives such as 'convince', 'evince', and 'invincible', all carrying the underlying sense of overcoming. For spelling, the key trap is the unstressed middle, which sounds like 'vik-tree' but actually keeps the 'tor' from the Latin victor.

How the word is built

• vict- (from vincere: to conquer)
• -ory (noun suffix denoting result or condition)