esteem
Americanverb (used with object)
-
esteems,
present (3rd person singular)
-
esteemed,
past participle, past
-
esteeming
present participle
noun
-
favorable opinion or judgment; respect or regard.
to hold a person in esteem.
- Synonyms:
- veneration, reverence, honor, admiration, favor
-
Archaic. opinion or judgment; estimation; valuation.
verb
-
to have great respect or high regard for
to esteem a colleague
-
formal to judge or consider; deem
to esteem an idea improper
noun
-
high regard or respect; good opinion
-
archaic judgment; opinion
Usage
What are other ways to say esteem? If you esteem someone, you hold them in high regard. How is esteem different from appreciate, value, and prize? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Synonym Usage
See respect.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
esteemsimple
-
esteemssimple
-
have esteemedperfect
-
has esteemedperfect
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am esteemingprogressive
-
are esteemingprogressive
-
is esteemingprogressive
-
have been esteemingperfect progressive
-
has been esteemingperfect progressive
Past
-
esteemedsimple
-
had esteemedperfect
-
was esteemingprogressive
-
were esteemingprogressive
-
had been esteemingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of esteem
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English estemen, from Middle French estimer, from Latin aestimāre “to fix the value of”
Explanation
Esteem is all about respect and admiration. If you have high self-esteem, it means you like yourself. When you say, "My esteemed colleagues," you are saying you have nothing but the highest respect for them. Esteem derives from the same Latin word that gives us estimate, and back in the day, esteem, like estimate meant "to assess, or judge the value of something." That sense lingers today. When you say you hold someone in high esteem, it means you give them a high value. Unless you're a politician, in which case, when you say, "I hold my opponent in high esteem," you are most likely to follow that statement with a big "But...."
Vocabulary lists containing esteem
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Things Fall Apart
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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:
Mainstream culture’s relatively lower esteem for the Green Lantern is absolutely related to cartoonish interpretations of his power in live-action depictions.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
That was esteem and respect, and we used to joke a lot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
A French speaker, Leo had expressed on various occasions "the great esteem in which he holds our country and her spiritual history", Aveline said earlier in May.
From Barron's ● May 16, 2026
Most countries hold us in remarkably lower esteem today than they did a year ago.
From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2026
The captain nodded, and the chaplain gazed at his porous, gray pallor of fatigue and malnutrition with a mixture of pity and esteem.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
“I know that he esteems her a lot, like all the Jesuits of Argentina and Uruguay, because they consider her their spiritual mother,” Correale told The Associated Press in the runup to the ceremony.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
The great irony, or the sublime absurdity, is that like a priest who practices his faith after the death of God, Daoud esteems Camus even as he exposes the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s blind spots.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 1, 2015
PEN esteems not only exquisite literature, but also the right of all people to express themselves.
From Slate ● May 6, 2015
This is not contributing to a culture that esteems them.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2012
“Pendennis,” “The Adventures of Philip,” and “The Virginians” he esteems as his most interesting works, though Thackeray reached high-water mark, in Mr. Reed’s opinion, in “Vanity Fair.”
From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, October 1893 by Various
City remain in talks to sign 18-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille, but it would be a big ask for the Moroccan teenager to fill such esteemed boots.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Ronald Lauder’s esteemed collection of German and Austrian art will be owned and operated by the Met starting in 2028.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Immigrants lived near the mission, and esteemed Spanish Mexican families lived in large mansions around the churches that dot Old Town in the mid-19th century — many came post-Spanish-Mexican wars.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
At 99, Saar is among L.A.’s most esteemed and accomplished living artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
He wanted to unite his own team and have them view him as their esteemed leader, like the U-boat crew viewed their captain.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
What nudged Americans from esteeming fastidious high-culture figures like Muck to idolizing personally crude pop-culture stars like Ruth?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2020
The Russians, esteeming ceremony as a proud proletarian power should, outdid themselves in welcome.
From Time Magazine Archive
They who prize virtue never esteem the unworthy; and it is not possible to know thy excellent heart and manly nature, without esteeming thee.
From Mercedes of Castile The Voyage to Cathay by J. Fenimore Cooper
May happiness wing to thy bosom, unsought, And Nigel, esteeming his bliss as he ought, Prove worthy thy worship,—confound him!
From A Selection from the Works of Frederick Locker by Hannah Jane Locker-Lampson
Giuseppe Rivola, employed for private persons more than for the public, is also deserving of mention, his fellow citizens esteeming him among the best of Abbiati's pupils.
From The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6) from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Luigi Antonio Lanzi
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.
