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
Times Festival of Books, Amanda Knox spoke about her connection with Monica Lewinsky and ‘the sisterhood of ill repute.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025
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
She knew that London was a large, bustling, and confusing city, and that one wrong turn might send them wandering down dark cobblestone streets that dead-ended at smelly slaughterhouses and riverfront establishments of ill repute.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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
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
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
For the Fathers were but men, and to speak the truth, their reputes and authorities did undervalue and suppress the books and writings of the sacred Apostles of Christ.
From Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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
Last year, the country’s security service said it had “effectively disabled” a Russian submarine with an underwater drone—a reputed first in warfare.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 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
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
The photo of a young El Mencho that flashed on the screen is among the only public images of the reputed kingpin, who is believed to be 58.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
As dangerous as the Chimaera, and as rare, the Manticore is reputed to croon softly as it devours its prey.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
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
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.
