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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fame.

Something said or reported; gossip, rumour.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/feɪm/

  1. Something said or reported; gossip, rumour.

    archaic · uncountable · usually

  2. One's reputation.

    uncountable · usually

  3. The state of being famous or well-known and spoken of, especially for something positive.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂meh₂ Proto-Italic *fāmā Latin fāmabor. Old French famebor. Middle English fame English fame From Middle English fame, from Old French fame (“celebrity, renown”), itself borrowed from Latin fāma (“talk, rumor, report, reputation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂-meh₂, from *bʰeh₂- (“to speak, say, tell”). Cognate with Ancient Greek φήμη (phḗmē, “talk”). Related also to Latin for (“speak, say”, verb), Old English bōian (“to boast”), Old English bēn (“prayer, request”), Old English bannan (“to summon, command, proclaim”). More at ban. Displaced native Old English hlīsa.

verb/feɪm/

  1. To make (someone or something) famous.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂meh₂ Proto-Italic *fāmā Latin fāmabor. Old French famebor. Middle English fame English fame From Middle English fame, from Old French fame (“celebrity, renown”), itself borrowed from Latin fāma (“talk, rumor, report, reputation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂-meh₂, from *bʰeh₂- (“to speak, say, tell”). Cognate with Ancient Greek φήμη (phḗmē, “talk”). Related also to Latin for (“speak, say”, verb), Old English bōian (“to boast”), Old English bēn (“prayer, request”), Old English bannan (“to summon, command, proclaim”). More at ban. Displaced native Old English hlīsa.

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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.