illustrious
/ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.31 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
Example Sentences
- "A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down, with a generous neglect, on the censures and applauses of the multitude, and places a man beyond the little noise and strife of tongues. Accordingly we find in ourselves a secret awe and veneration for the character of one who moves above us, in a regular and illustrious course of virtue, without any regard to our own good or ill opinions of him, to our reproaches or commendations."
- "Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!"
- "The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious. / So what? / Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid?"
- "[Marcus] Rashford showed the fearless streak [Gareth] Southgate so admires with his constant willingness to run at Brazil's defence with pace, even demonstrating on occasion footwork that would not have been out of place from members of England's illustrious opposition."
Etymology
From Latin illūstris (“bright, shining; distinguished, prominent, illustrious”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree). Illūstris is derived from illūstrō (“to brighten, illuminate; to make famous or illustrious”), from in- (“in, inside”) + lūstrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lūstrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or *lewh₃- (“to wash”)).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/
- British English: /ɪˈlʌs.tɹɪ.əs/
Inflected Forms
more illustrious (comparative)
most illustrious (superlative)