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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

emeritus.

Retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title.

8 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɪˈmɛɹɪtəs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/əˈmɛɹətəs/

  1. Retired, but retaining an honorific version of a previous title.

    not-comparable · often · postpositional
    emeritus professor    professor emeritus    professors emeritae
    pontiff emeritus
Where this word comes from

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin ēmeritus (“(having been) earned, (having been) merited; (having been) served, having done one’s service”), the perfect passive participle of ēmereō (“to earn, merit; to gain by service; (military) to complete one’s obligation to serve, to serve out one’s time”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + mereō (“to deserve, merit; to acquire, earn, get, obtain; to render service to; to serve”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot; to assign”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. The plural form emeriti is borrowed from Latin ēmeritī.

noun/ɪˈmɛɹɪtəs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/əˈmɛɹətəs//ɪˈmɛɹɪtaɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/əˈmɛɹətaɪ/

  1. A (male) person who is retired from active service or an occupation, especially one who retains an honorific version of a previous title.

  2. An honorific version of a previous title.

    rare
Where this word comes from

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin ēmeritus (“(having been) earned, (having been) merited; (having been) served, having done one’s service”), the perfect passive participle of ēmereō (“to earn, merit; to gain by service; (military) to complete one’s obligation to serve, to serve out one’s time”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + mereō (“to deserve, merit; to acquire, earn, get, obtain; to render service to; to serve”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot; to assign”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. The plural form emeriti is borrowed from Latin ēmeritī.

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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.