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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

desideratum.

Something that is wished for, or considered desirable, particularly when thought to be essential.

11 characters5 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪˌsɪdəˈɹɑːtəm/Received-Pronunciation/-ˌzɪ-/Received-Pronunciation/-ˈɹeɪ-/Received-Pronunciation/dəˌsɪdəˈɹɑtəm/General-American
  1. Something that is wished for, or considered desirable, particularly when thought to be essential.

Where this word comes from

Learned borrowing from Latin dēsīderātum (“something that is desired”), neuter nominative singular of dēsīderātus, the passive past participle of dēsīderāre (“to desire”), from dēsīderō (“to desire, want, wish for”), from de- (intensifying prefix) + possibly sīdus (“star; constellation”) though the connection is unclear. The English word is cognate with French desideratum, Spanish desiderátum. The plural is derived from Latin dēsīderāta.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.