Word.ws English Dictionary

fons honorum

/ˌfɒnz hɒˈnɔːɹəm/

fons honorum noun: a person who, by virtue of sovereignty, holds the exclusive right to create and confer legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry.

Noun

fons honorum (plural fontes honorum)

  1. A person who, by virtue of sovereignty, holds the exclusive right to create and confer legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry.
    • In 1919 Pʻun-kʻaṅ taiji bKra-śis-rdo-rje was appointed kung, the only attempt by the Dalai-Lama to succede the defunct Chinese Ch’ing dynasty as fons honorum.1973, Luciano Petech, Aristocracy and Government in Tibet, 1728–1959, page 27
    • It doesn’t seem that the smaller or lower-ranking states behaved as fontes honorum before 1806.2002 February 11th, Francois R. Velde, alt.talk.royalty, “Re: Fons honorum germanorum”, (see the original message)
    Synonyms:
    fount of honour

Synonyms of fons honorum

Forms of fons honorum

pluralfontes honorum

Origin of fons honorum

Latin: fōns (“fount, source”) + honōrum (“of honours”; the genitive plural form of honor (“honour”)) = “source of honours” ≈ “fount of honour”

Questions about fons honorum

What does fons honorum mean?
Fons honorum means a person who, by virtue of sovereignty, holds the exclusive right to create and confer legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry.
What part of speech is fons honorum?
Fons honorum is a noun.
How do you pronounce fons honorum?
Fons honorum is pronounced /ˌfɒnz hɒˈnɔːɹəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of fons honorum?
The plural of fons honorum is fontes honorum.

Words near fons honorum in the dictionary

  1. Fonoifua
  2. Fonoifua Island
  3. FONOPs
  4. fons
  5. fons et origo
  6. fons honorum
  7. Fonseca
  8. Fonseca's disease
  9. Fonsecas
  10. fonsecinone
  11. fonsecinones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fons honorum (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fons honorum.wav.

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