repute
Americannoun
-
estimation in the view of others; reputation.
persons of good repute.
-
favorable reputation; good name; public respect.
- Synonyms:
- honor, distinction
- Antonyms:
- dishonor
verb (used with object)
-
reputes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reputed,
past participle, past
-
reputing
present participle
verb
noun
Synonym Usage
See credit.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reputesimple
-
reputessimple
-
have reputedperfect
-
has reputedperfect
-
am reputingprogressive
-
are reputingprogressive
-
is reputingprogressive
-
have been reputingperfect progressive
-
has been reputingperfect progressive
Past
-
reputedsimple
-
had reputedperfect
-
was reputingprogressive
-
were reputingprogressive
-
had been reputingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of repute
1400–50; late Middle English reputen (v.) < Middle French reputer < Latin reputāre to compute, consider, equivalent to re- re- + putāre to think
Explanation
A person of great or fine repute is someone who's widely known and highly respected. The word has a stuffy feel, so you're better off describing a cellist as being of great repute than, say, a rapper or comedian. Like the words reputation and putative, repute comes from the Latin word putare, which means "consider." And the re? Let's say that the cellist Yo-Yo Ma is widely respected. That means a lot of people consider him to be great. He's considered great not just once but again (and again and again).
Vocabulary lists containing repute
Just Mercy
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This Week in Words: September 22 - 28, 2018
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Despite his father, William, swiftly banning Virgo from the club, out of concerns for a boy so young treating such a venue of questionable repute as his playground, snooker had already won.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
Practically every working actor of some repute has offhandedly mentioned their interest in directing a film at one time or another.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026
An opera company’s stature, and even an art capital’s cultural repute, can rise or fall depending upon its ability to mount a “Ring” cycle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024
Having been thoroughly Islamized, Ghana began to produce Muslim scholars, lawyers, and Quran readers of some repute, many traveling to Islamic Spain to study or going on pilgrimage to Mecca.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Hosteen was a bull, slow to anger but implacable once roused, and by repute the fiercest fighter of Lord Walder’s get.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he; I shoot thee at the swain.
From Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
Yass, seh," Cornelius was tipsily remarking, "the journals o' the day reputes me to have absawb some paucity o' the school funds.
From John March, Southerner by George W. Cable
Nobody reputes him to steal, an' I don't say he do.
From John March, Southerner by George W. Cable
They shall see only silver and gold, houses and lands, reputes, supremacies, fames, and, as instrumental to these, the forms of logic and seemings of knowledge.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 Creator by Various
I daresay that other great London physicians, whom the world reputes worldly, often do similar charities by stealth.
From Willing to Die by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
At Le Beccherie, the dessert’s reputed birthplace, chef Manuel Gobbo explains how hard it is for a local to make the perfect version because “everyone has a memory of how their mother made tiramisu.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
That distinction belongs to the 18-hole Royal Calcutta Golf Club, founded in 1829 and reputed to be the oldest outside Britain.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Norwich have been crying out for a quick winger who can deliver quality into the box, and in Papa Amadou Diallo they have a player reputed to be the quickest in the league.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2025
Now Field is a protected witness for federal prosecutors seeking to convict three of the Aryan Brotherhood’s reputed leaders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
In this agonizing fashion I climbed toward a cluster of tents reputed to be perched somewhere on the sheer face above, progressing in increments calibrated in inches.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
The friar now perceiving that Ser Ciappelletto had nothing more to say, gave him absolution and his blessing, reputing him for a most holy man, fully believing that all that he had said was true.
From The Decameron, Volume I by J. M. (James Macmullen) Rigg
Ouer his kinred, hee held a warie and charie care, which bountifully was expressed, when occasion so required, reputing himselfe, not onely principall of the family, but a generall father to them all.
From The Survey of Cornwall And an epistle concerning the excellencies of the English tongue by Richard Carew
Whereby apeareth, how he esteemed learning, and what felicity he putte therin, reputing al the worlde saue him selfe to be inferiour to Diogenes.
From The Path-Way to Knowledg Containing the First Principles of Geometrie by Robert Record
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
