certamen
[kɛɹˈtɑːmɛn]
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Anglicised[kɚˈtɑmən]
certamen noun: a team competition in which contestants answer questions about classical history, culture, and mythology, and the Latin language.
Noun
certamen (uncountable)
- A team competition in which contestants answer questions about classical history, culture, and mythology, and the Latin language.
- It was the semifinal round of Certamen, Latin for contest, the Junior Classical League's answer to “It's Academic.” Two teams of four-each sat across from a judge, and pressed buzzers that lighted up a bulb showing which team responded first.1983 August 12, Susan Chira, Special To the New York Times, “A Roman Holiday Upstate”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- There's the “certamen” or contest, similar, Mrs. Nicholls said, to a television quiz show. Students compete against other schools in mythology, history and trivia. Anyone can enter - all they have to know is some Latin.1988 February 21, Tessa Melvin, “A Latin revival takes the stage at John Jay High School”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Origin of certamen
Borrowed from Latin certāmen (“contest”). Ultimately from Latin certus (“certain, fixed, settled, firm”).
Questions about certamen
- What does certamen mean?
- Certamen means a team competition in which contestants answer questions about classical history, culture, and mythology, and the Latin language.
- What part of speech is certamen?
- Certamen is a noun.
- How do you pronounce certamen?
- Certamen is pronounced [kɛɹˈtɑːmɛn].
Words near certamen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: certamen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “certamen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/certamen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.