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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

solemn.

Of or pertaining to religious ceremonies and rites; (generally) religious in nature; sacred.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsɒləm/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɑləm/General-American
  1. Of or pertaining to religious ceremonies and rites; (generally) religious in nature; sacred.

    specifically
  2. Characterized by or performed with appropriate or great ceremony or formality.

    broadly
  3. Deeply serious and sombre; grave.

    broadly
  4. Inspiring serious feelings or thoughts; sombrely impressive.

    broadly
  5. Cheerless, gloomy, sombre.

    broadly · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English solempne, solemne (“performed with religious ceremony or reverence; devoted to religious observances, sacred; ceremonious, formal; of a vow: made under a religious sanction, binding; religious celebration, celebration of a feast day; famous, well-known; important; grand, imposing; awe-inspiring, impressive; grave, serious; dignified; enunciated or held formally”) [and other forms], from Old French solempne, solemne (“serious, solemn”) [and other forms], or from its etymon Late Latin sōlempnis, sōlennis, from Latin sōlemnis, from sollemnis (“appointed, established, fixed; common, customary, ordinary, ritual, traditional, usual; ceremonial, religious, solemn; festive; annual, yearly”) [and other forms]. The further etymology is uncertain; sollus (“entire, whole”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“whole”)) + epulum (“banquet, feast”) (in the sense of a ritual; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)) has been suggested.

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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.