Word.ws English Dictionary

encomium

UK/ɛŋˈkəʊ.mɪ.əm//ɛnˈkoʊ.mɪ.əm/

encomium noun: warm praise, especially a formal expression of such praise; a tribute.

Noun

encomium (plural encomiums or encomia)

  1. Warm praise, especially a formal expression of such praise; a tribute.
    • I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, The History of Louisiana: Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing a Description of the Countries that Lye on both Sides of the River...
    • ...and where he never failed to lavish on me every gift his fortune could supply, delight me by the encomiums he bestowed on my music and needlework (always an object of importance in a nunnery), and prove, by his admiring looks and his tender tones, how entirely he loved me.1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 38
  2. (rhetoric) A general category of oratory.
  3. (rhetoric) A method within rhetorical pedagogy.
  4. The eighth exercise in the progymnasmata series.
  5. A genre of literature that included five elements: prologue, birth and upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject, and an epilogue.

encomium meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

encomium in Tamil

புகழ்மாலை, போற்றுதல், உயர்வு நவிற்சி

encomium in Urdu

مدح, قصیدہ

encomium in Malayalam

eulogy, panegyric, paean
സ്തുതി, ശ്ലാഘ, പ്രശസ്തി, പ്രശംസ, പുകഴ്ത്തൽ, ശ്ലോകം

encomium in Kannada

ಹೊಗಳಿಕೆ, ಪ್ರಶಂಸೆ, ಶ್ಲಾಘನೆ, ಕೊಂಡಾಟ, ಸ್ತುತಿ, ಗುಣಗಾನ
More languagesFewer languages
encomium in Arabic
ثَنَاء ṯanāʔ

Examples of encomium in a sentence

  • "I never seen their like," was Lassiter's encomium, "an' in my day I've seen a sight of horses."1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
  • Many a new locomotive class has received encomiums in these columns because its early work was outstanding, judged by the then prevailing standards.1944 March and April, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 89:
  • An extravagant encomium, of course, but that is what she said.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X:
  • A more classical, adoxographic tone characterizes an encomium of the ass contained in Pero Mexía's 1547 Diálogos.1991, Adrienne Laskier Martín, Cervantes and the Burlesque Sonnet, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 141:

Forms of encomium

pluralencomiums
pluralencomia

Origin of encomium

From Latin encōmium (“praise, eulogy”), from Ancient Greek ἐγκώμιον (enkṓmion, “laudatory ode, praise”), from ἐγκώμιος (enkṓmios, “of or pertaining to the victor”), from κῶμος (kômos, “festival, revel, ode”).

Questions about encomium

What does encomium mean?
Encomium means warm praise, especially a formal expression of such praise; a tribute.
What is encomium in Tamil?
Encomium in Tamil is புகழ்மாலை, போற்றுதல், உயர்வு நவிற்சி. See Encomium meaning in Tamil.
How do you use encomium in a sentence?
"I never seen their like," was Lassiter's encomium, "an' in my day I've seen a sight of horses."
What part of speech is encomium?
Encomium is a noun.
How do you pronounce encomium?
Encomium is pronounced /ɛŋˈkəʊ.mɪ.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of encomium?
The plural of encomium is encomiums.

Words near encomium in the dictionary

  1. encomiasts
  2. encomienda
  3. encomiendas
  4. encomion
  5. encomions
  6. encomium
  7. encomiums
  8. encompass
  9. encompassable
  10. encompassed
  11. encompasser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: encomium (page history and authors); encomium (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encomium (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encomium (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); encomium (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-encomium.ogg.

Cite this entry: “encomium.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/encomium. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.