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:
John Field, one of Li’s two protagonists, was in fact a classical pianist of some repute, having invented the nocturne form of composition that Chopin would make famous in Field’s lifetime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 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
Brightline argued that Virgin had “ceased to constitute a brand of international high repute, largely because of matters related to the pandemic.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
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
Between Meereen and Volantis lay five hundred leagues of deserts, mountains, swamps, and ruins, plus Mantarys with its sinister repute.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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
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
Nobody reputes him to steal, an' I don't say he do.
From John March, Southerner by George W. Cable
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
O spare Antinous; The world reputes thee valiant, do not soyle All thy past nobleness with such a cowardize.
From The Laws of Candy Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) by Francis Beaumont
They tend to avoid the DSA’s internal politicking, but are reputed to throw its most raucous parties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
She identified the man as Andrew Lopez, 26, a reputed Blythe Street member.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The night ended with the skies being lit up by the reputed largest fireworks display ever in the US.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
The president is nonetheless reputed to have brought a degree of stability back to the country scarred by civil war in the 1990s and to a region plagued by conflict.
From Barron's ● Feb. 28, 2026
He was reputed to be a hypochondriac and a deeply paranoid, frustrated man.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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
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
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
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