katharevousa
Syllables: Ka·tha·re·vou·saUK/ˌkaθəˈɹɛvuːsə//ˌkɑθəˈɹɛvusɑ/
katharevousa is the alternative form of Katharevousa.
Proper noun capitalized: Katharevousa
Katharevousa
- A learned, archaising form of Modern Greek, based on Classical Greek and used for formal and official purposes; it was legally displaced as the official language of Greece in 1976 by Demotic Greek.
- ‘You read the poetry of Cavafy, I have taught you to speak Katharevousa and Italian.’1994, Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Minerva, published 1995, page 87
- A year later, after much deliberation and public discussion, an act of parliament established that demotic Greek was to replace the hybrid katharevousa as the official language of education – and therefore, in practice, in most walks of life (exceptions are the Church and law).2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published 2020, page 345
Forms of katharevousa
| alternative form | katharevousa |
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Origin of katharevousa
From Greek καθαρεύουσα (katharévousa), feminine of καθαρεύων (katharévon), present participle of Ancient Greek καθαρεύω (kathareúō, “to be clean, pure”).
Questions about katharevousa
- What does katharevousa mean?
- Katharevousa means a learned, archaising form of Modern Greek, based on Classical Greek and used for formal and official purposes; it was legally displaced as the official language of Greece in 1976 by Demotic Greek.
- What is katharevousa the alternative form of?
- Katharevousa is the alternative form of Katharevousa.
- What part of speech is katharevousa?
- Katharevousa is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce katharevousa?
- Katharevousa is pronounced /ˌkaθəˈɹɛvuːsə/ (UK).
Words near katharevousa in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: katharevousa (page history and authors); Katharevousa (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-Katharevousa.wav.
Cite this entry: “katharevousa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/katharevousa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.