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illustrious. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
illustrious, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
illustrious in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
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- (“prefix meaning ‘in, inside’”) + lustrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lustrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or *lewh₃- (“to wash”)).
Pronunciation
Adjective
illustrious (comparative more illustrious, superlative most illustrious)
- Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
1712 January 2 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, December 22, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 255; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, pages 127–128: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.
1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC, page 154: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!
1941, Ogden Nash, “The Ant”, in The Face is Familiar: The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash, reprint edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 224: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?
2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0 – 0 Brazil”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 28 March 2018:[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.
Antonyms
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Translations
admired, respected, or well-known
- Arabic: شَهِير (ar) (šahīr), مَجِيد (majīd)
- Bulgarian: знатен (bg) (znaten), прославен (bg) (proslaven), знаменит (bg) (znamenit)
- Catalan: il·lustre (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 有名 (zh) (yǒumíng), 著名 (zh) (zhùmíng), 優秀/优秀 (zh) (yōuxiù), 輝煌/辉煌 (zh) (huīhuáng), 燦爛/灿烂 (zh) (cànlàn), 傑出/杰出 (zh) (jiéchū)
- Czech: vynikající (cs), význačný (cs), znamenitý, proslulý (cs)
- Dutch: illuster (nl), roemrijk (nl)
- Estonian: kuulus, väljapaistev, silmapaistev, lugupeetav, auväärne, hiilgav
- Finnish: valovoimainen
- French: illustre (fr)
- Galician: ilustre, egrexio, escrarecido
- German: glorreich (de), erlaucht (de) (dated)
- Greek:
- Ancient: ἐπιφανής (epiphanḗs)
- Ido: famoza (io), glorioza (io)
- Italian: famoso (it)
- Latin: pulchrum, illustris (la)
- Macedonian: зна́менит (známenit), про́чуен (próčuen), сла́вен (sláven), про́славен (próslaven)
- Maori: taiea
- Polish: znamienity, wspaniały (pl)
- Portuguese: ilustre (pt)
- Russian: знамени́тый (ru) (znamenítyj), изве́стный (ru) (izvéstnyj), просла́вленный (ru) (proslávlennyj), сла́вный (ru) (slávnyj)
- Serbo-Croatian: znamenit (sh)
- Spanish: ilustre (es), ínclito (es) (formal), preclaro (es)
- Swedish: illuster (sv)
- Vietnamese: có tiếng, nổi tiếng (vi), lừng lẫy (vi), rạng rỡ (vi), vinh quang (vi)
- Walloon: ilusse (wa)
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