Usage
What does notoriety mean? Notoriety is the state or quality of being famous or well-known, especially for a negative reason. If often means the state or quality of being notorious, which is especially used to describe people who are widely known and viewed unfavorably for their actions, such as notorious criminals. It can also be applied to events, as in a notorious scandal. This sense of notorious is often used interchangeably with the word infamous. Strictly speaking, infamous means having, deserving, or resulting in a bad or evil reputation, while notorious usually implies that a person is both famous and disliked. Still, they usually mean just about the same thing. A noun form of infamous, infamy, is often used interchangeably with notoriety. Notorious can also mean known for a particular trait or action, not necessarily a bad one, as in My aunt is notorious for arriving late to family events. Notoriety can refer to the state of being known in this way. In some cases, it can mean much the same thing as fame, and in fact the two words are often used side by side, as in It’s unbelievable what some people will do for fame and notoriety. Notoriety is often discussed as being earned, gained, or achieved, as in The company gained notoriety for its irreverent marketing campaigns. Example: He gained notoriety for his role in the scandal, and his reputation has never recovered.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of notoriety
1585–95; < Medieval Latin nōtōrietās, equivalent to nōtōri ( us ) notorious + -etās, variant (after -i- ) of -ity
Explanation
Notoriety is fame you get from doing something bad or being part of a misfortune or scandal. Just remember: Notoriety's not al-righty. Charles Manson earned notoriety for his grisly crimes. In our celebrity culture, it's hard not to think that seizing your 15 minutes of fame is worth the shame of earning it through stupidity, scandal, or evil. (See: people's motives for going on reality television.) We ordinary mortals can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that most people who become notorious fade from the public mind quickly.
Vocabulary lists containing notoriety
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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:
Faye, and her husband/producing partner, have parlayed this notoriety into indie, cool-kid projects that are just commercial enough that some of the target audiences’ boomer parents may also watch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Fager had initially turned down the idea until he decided to pursue the story a year later, as Gaga had gained more notoriety.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
The celebration gained some notoriety when the Washington Post ran a picture of Reagan trying—and apparently failing—to cut in on a dance between Sinatra and Nancy Reagan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Conditions there have prompted outcry from rights groups, and UN experts have condemned it as a site of "unparalleled notoriety."
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Gatsby's notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past, had increased all summer until he fell just short of being news.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
One met beauty as well as brains; wealth as well as wit; and quite as many colourless nonentities as notorieties of every hue.
From My Lord Duke by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
Notabilities as long as the Spanish money lasted—then notorieties.
From The Tragic Bride by Young, Francis Brett
But evidently success in these cases was due to the exceptional and fortunate fact that the fixed notorieties of history were combined with a strange and mysterious geography.
From The Epic An Essay by Abercrombie, Lascelles
Hate is the high commander of so many armies that an inquiry into the origin of this passion is at least as needful as histories of other contemporary notorieties.
From The National Being Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity by Russell, George William
Few of our notorieties could be trusted to think out any economic or social problem thoroughly and efficiently.
From The National Being Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity by Russell, George William
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.
