notorious
/nəˈtɔ.ɹi.əs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Senses with an unfavourable connotation.
adj
Senses with an unfavourable connotation.
adj
Senses with a favourable or neutral connotation.
Example Sentences
- "Such Men theſe had, to Miſchiefe vvholly bent, / In Villanie, notorious for their skill, / Diſhoneſt, deſp'rate, mercileſſe, and rude, / That dar'd into Damnation to intrude."
- "You notorious ſtinkardly bearevvard, do's my breath ſmell?"
- "But Rutilus, is ſo Notorious grovvn, / That he's the common Theme of all the Tovvn."
- "A vvoman of quality, notorious for her gallantries, though as ſhe ſtill lived vvith her huſband, nobody choſe to place her in the claſs vvhere ſhe ought to have been placed, […]"
- "Then he had gone to Oxford, had entered himself at Magdalene, and had soon become notorious there for every kind of vice."
- "He found out that she had belonged to a profession whose most notorious member for our generation was Mrs. Warren, and having made a competence she now lived the quiet life of the bourgeoise."
Etymology
From Late Middle English notoryous, from Medieval Latin nōtōrius (“evident, known; famous, well-known; infamous”), from Latin nōtus (“known, recognized; familiar, widely known; famous, well-known; infamous”) + -tōrius (suffix forming adjectives). Nōtus is the perfect passive participle of nōscō (“to become acquainted with or learn about (something); (rare) to be familiar with, recognize”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know; to recognize”). cognates * Catalan notori (“well-known”) * Middle French notoire (Anglo-Norman notoire, notoir, notore, notorie, modern French notoire (“notorious; well-known”)) * Italian notorio (“notorious; well-known”) * Portuguese notorjo (obsolete), notório (“illustrious; open, public; notorious”) * Spanish notorio (“apparent, clear, obvious; well-known”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ǵneh₃-, notoryous, nōtōrius, nōtus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /nəˈtɔ.ɹi.əs/
- British English: /nə(ʊ)ˈtɔː.ɹɪ.əs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more notorious (comparative)
most notorious (superlative)