fame
Americannoun
-
widespread reputation, especially of a favorable character; renown; public eminence.
to seek fame as an opera singer.
-
common estimation or opinion generally held of a person or thing; reputation.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
the state of being widely known or recognized; renown; celebrity
-
archaic rumour or public report
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fame
1175–1225; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin fāma talk, public opinion, repute, akin to fārī to speak
Explanation
Fame is what you have if you're a celebrity: a lot of people know who you are. A musician's fame might mean she wears sunglasses and a baseball cap to disguise herself when she's in public. Movie stars, rock stars, well-known public figures — these are all people who have achieved some amount of fame. You may have a kind of fame in a much smaller sphere: "She won every spelling bee in the state, which gave her some fame at her school." Fame is an Old French word that means "reputation or renown," from the Latin fama, "rumor, reputation, or renown," and also "ill-fame" or "scandal."
Vocabulary lists containing fame
Academy Awards, List 5
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"Mysteries of the Ancient Past"
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"The New Colossus"
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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:
You also must tip your hat to Kildunne and how she has managed herself with her new-found fame.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
The greatest damper of Morris’s fame, however, may be that he simply did not care enough about it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Although his association with “Star Trek” and Picard came to define how people perceived him, Stewart’s merry attitude about his claim to fame let us appreciate his range.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
He effectively filled the boots of William Shatner's Captain Kirk from the original show, and the role became Stewart's path to fame and fortune.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
Among a small number of people, it even had a small amount of fame.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
The 8,400-square-foot home was designed in 1949 by John “Jack” Elgin Woolf, a famed midcentury-era architect of the Hollywood stars.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
Koenig was 30 when he was cast, and producers hoped he'd appeal to teens, with his mop-top hairstyle not unlike Davy Jones of the Monkees, the famed TV-produced pop band.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
Trump said in a social-media post Sunday that the course remodeling would begin next month, and he included a rendering of the renovated links drafted by famed golf-course architect Tom Fazio.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
A team has travelled to Nikumaroro Island, part of Kiribati, hoping to solve the mystery of the famed aviator's disappearance by investigating the so-called Taraia Object, spotted in the atoll's lagoon in aerial imagery.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
This 1870s photograph shows famed medium Florence Cook slumped on a chair in an unconscious trance with a materialized spirit named Katie King standing behind her.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
In the 1930s, drought and bad faming methods destroyed 100 million acres of farmland around Oklahoma and forced families to leave, many for California.
From Time ● Apr. 10, 2015
In Strype's edition, 1720, he says, concerning this gate, "Leaving out the fable thereof faming it to be builded by King Belin, a Briton, long before the incarnation of Christ."
From Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850 by Various
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
