Acclaimed

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /əˈkleɪmd/

Definitions

1. Recognized and honored for exceptional quality or merit
2. Praised and esteemed by audiences or critics for notable achievements
3. Widely celebrated for outstanding quality and widely acknowledged for merit

Etymology: "Acclaimed" is the past participle of "acclaim," a verb that began as a shout. It was borrowed from Latin "acclāmō," meaning "raise a cry at" or "applaud," built from "ad-" (toward) and "clāmō" (cry out, shout). The Latin root "clāmō" is also the source of English "claim" and "exclaim," so the family is all about noise and calling out. The noun-and-verb sense of "acclaim" in English took shape in the early 14th century as a word for a loud shout, and by the 1630s it had settled into its present sense of applauding someone. The sense of "acclaim" as a noun for public praise came later, first recorded in 1667. So the word's core meaning of an enthusiastic cry from a crowd has carried through to today's meaning of public approval.

Synonyms: celebrated, renowned, admired, applauded, esteemed

Antonyms: disregarded, ignored