reputedly
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of reputedly
Explanation
Use the adverb reputedly for things that are said by many to be a certain way, like the unpromising-looking pizza place that's reputedly the best Italian restaurant in your neighborhood. When people generally believe that you're really fast at reading, you're a reputedly speedy reader. And if the creepy old house next door is reputedly haunted, that means that everyone says ghosts live there. Another way to think of reputedly is meaning "by reputation." In fact, the two words share a Latin root, reputare, "to count over, reckon, or think over."
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.
The fire killed almost every tree in this section of the Redwood Mountain Grove in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, reputedly the world’s largest stand of sequoias.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
Local resident Ian Bishop, described by Miller as a “man of mystery,” reputedly uses water from his well.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 19, 2025
Of the roughly 20 million books in Harvard University’s libraries, one has long exerted a unique dark fascination, not for its contents, but for the material it was reputedly bound in: human skin.
From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2024
Other lots included a microphone reputedly used by Churchill on VE Day to announce the end of World War Two, which sold for £11,500, plus buyer's premium.
From BBC • Feb. 6, 2024
The Golden Company was reputedly the finest of the free companies, founded a century ago by Bittersteel, a bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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.
