ignominious

CEFRC2

/ˌɪɡ.nə(ʊ)ˈmɪ.ni.əs/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Causing shame or loss of respect.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Causing or marked by disgrace or dishonour; disgraceful, dishonourable; also (loosely), humiliating, shameful.

Examples

  • Dr. Jackson suffered an ignominious downfall after a celebrated career.

  • It is more ignominious to mistrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Marked by great disgrace, dishonour, humiliation, or shame; disgraceful, shameful.

  2. Especially of a person: deserving of disgrace or dishonour; contemptible, despicable.

More examples

In context

  • The time when the pseudovirtuous men and women die a painful and ignominious death has yet to come.

  • Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here / VVith ignominious vvords, though Clarkely coucht? / As if ſhe had ſuborned ſome to ſvveare / Falſe allegations, to o'rethrovv his ſtate.

  • The golden eagle, which glittered in the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest devotion; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of danger.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The team suffered an blank defeat in the final game after they made many critical mistakes.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Late Middle English ignominious (“disgraceful, shameful”), from Middle French ignominieux (modern French ignominieux), or from its etymon Latin ignōminiōsus (“disgraced; disgraceful, shameful, ignominious”), from ignōminia (“disgrace, dishonour, shame, ignominy”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Ignōminia is derived from ig- (variant of in- (prefix meaning not) + nōmen (“name; good name, reputation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). By surface analysis, ignominy + -ious (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, typically...