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repute

American  
[ri-pyoot] / rɪˈpjut /

noun

  1. estimation in the view of others; reputation.

    persons of good repute.

  2. 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
  1. to consider or believe (a person or thing) to be as specified; regard (usually used in the passive).

    He was reputed to be a millionaire.

    Synonyms:
    reckon, deem, hold
repute British  
/ rɪˈpjuːt /

verb

  1. (tr; usually passive) to consider (a person or thing) to be as specified

    he is reputed to be intelligent

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. public estimation; reputation

    a writer of little repute

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See credit.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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).

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Vocabulary lists containing repute

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:

An opera company’s stature, and even an art capital’s cultural repute, can rise or fall depending upon its ability to mount a “Ring” cycle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024

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

Open-city proponent, former city councilman, lawyer noted for defending houses of ill repute, casually smoked a corncob pipe.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2023

"The airline's repute, and the resulting prestige of the job has allowed it to be highly selective during its recruitment process," the Singapore Academy of Corporate Management said in a report.

From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2022

“Hardly a day passes without him being invited to visit the studios of painters of repute, or people come to him,” Theo writes to Ma.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

I daresay that other great London physicians, whom the world reputes worldly, often do similar charities by stealth.

From Willing to Die by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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

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

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

Burton is reputed to have paid $1.1m for the diamond in 1969.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

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

It includes brigades belonging to Iran-backed groups reputed for acting unilaterally.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

The state also has what are reputed to be the meanest rattlesnakes anywhere along the trail, and the most unreliable water sources, particularly in high summer.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

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

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

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