esteem
Americanverb (used with object)
-
esteems,
present (3rd person singular)
-
esteemed,
past participle, past
-
esteeming
present participle
noun
-
favorable opinion or judgment; respect or regard.
to hold a person in esteem.
- Synonyms:
- veneration, reverence, honor, admiration, favor
-
Archaic. opinion or judgment; estimation; valuation.
verb
-
to have great respect or high regard for
to esteem a colleague
-
formal to judge or consider; deem
to esteem an idea improper
noun
-
high regard or respect; good opinion
-
archaic judgment; opinion
Usage
What are other ways to say esteem? If you esteem someone, you hold them in high regard. How is esteem different from appreciate, value, and prize? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Synonym Usage
See respect.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
esteemsimple
-
esteemssimple
-
have esteemedperfect
-
has esteemedperfect
-
am esteemingprogressive
-
are esteemingprogressive
-
is esteemingprogressive
-
have been esteemingperfect progressive
-
has been esteemingperfect progressive
Past
-
esteemedsimple
-
had esteemedperfect
-
was esteemingprogressive
-
were esteemingprogressive
-
had been esteemingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of esteem
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English estemen, from Middle French estimer, from Latin aestimāre “to fix the value of”
Explanation
Esteem is all about respect and admiration. If you have high self-esteem, it means you like yourself. When you say, "My esteemed colleagues," you are saying you have nothing but the highest respect for them. Esteem derives from the same Latin word that gives us estimate, and back in the day, esteem, like estimate meant "to assess, or judge the value of something." That sense lingers today. When you say you hold someone in high esteem, it means you give them a high value. Unless you're a politician, in which case, when you say, "I hold my opponent in high esteem," you are most likely to follow that statement with a big "But...."
Vocabulary lists containing esteem
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Things Fall Apart
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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:
Most countries hold us in remarkably lower esteem today than they did a year ago.
From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2026
Frederiksen had previously won international esteem and a degree of influence rarely afforded her nation of six million people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Not too long ago, “Bridgerton” was held in the highest esteem in the meeting place between TV fantasy and drab reality.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2026
“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world,” Kornet wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
I had hoped that by serving him the rest of the week I could win back his esteem.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
“I know that he esteems her a lot, like all the Jesuits of Argentina and Uruguay, because they consider her their spiritual mother,” Correale told The Associated Press in the runup to the ceremony.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
The great irony, or the sublime absurdity, is that like a priest who practices his faith after the death of God, Daoud esteems Camus even as he exposes the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s blind spots.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 1, 2015
PEN esteems not only exquisite literature, but also the right of all people to express themselves.
From Slate ● May 6, 2015
This is not contributing to a culture that esteems them.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2012
Mr. Ripple himself is the smallest man in the Wells, but nobody esteems him the less for that.
From The Passionate Elopement by Compton MacKenzie
In a country that esteemed practicality, fiction was enlisted to speak directly to a cause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Being the onstage voice of esteemed auteurs is a privilege Cheng takes seriously, especially when a director’s fans come up to him.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Immigrants lived near the mission, and esteemed Spanish Mexican families lived in large mansions around the churches that dot Old Town in the mid-19th century — many came post-Spanish-Mexican wars.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
The 36-year-old, who co-ran the esteemed Fulgurances restaurant in Paris and New York before opening Gigi's this month, said his pricing falls in line with industry standards.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
The esteemed Negro writers Miss Kimble talked about when I first visited the library.
From "Finding Langston" by Lesa Cline-Ransome
What nudged Americans from esteeming fastidious high-culture figures like Muck to idolizing personally crude pop-culture stars like Ruth?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2020
The Russians, esteeming ceremony as a proud proletarian power should, outdid themselves in welcome.
From Time Magazine Archive
They could hardly help esteeming him, for he seemed never to have a thought of himself; all was for the Queen and for her people.
From In the Days of Queen Victoria by Eva March Tappan
He was humiliated by this witness whom he could not deceive, and whom he could not help esteeming.
From The Children of Alsace Les Oberl?s by Ren? Bazin
With an education so neglected as mine, I should run the hazard of either unjustly depreciating my own judgment, or what is worse, esteeming it at more than its worth.
From Roland Cashel Volume I (of II) by Charles James Lever
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.
