cognomen
/kɒɡˈnoʊ.mən/
"cognomen" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cognomen” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cognomen · cognomen · English
cognomen · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cognomen |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɒɡˈnoʊ.mən/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cognomen” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cognomen is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɒɡˈnoʊ.mən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for cognomen in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin cognōmen, from con- (“with”) + nōmen (“name; family name”). The correct English form is cognomen, spelled C-O-G-N-O-M-E-N.
Definition
- 1A personal epithet or clan name added to the given name and family name of Ancient Romans.
- 2Synonym of nickname, any epithet used similar to the Roman cognomina.
- 3Synonym of surname, a family name.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cognomen appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Julius Caesar's actual name was Gaius Iulius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen or forename, Iulius his nomen or surname, and Caesar his cognomen, denoting which part of the Iulius family he belonged to.
"Five hundred years or more afterwards, the family migrated to Rome under circumstances of which no trace remains, and here, probably with the idea of preserving the idea of vengeance which we find set out in the name of Tisisthenes, they appear to have pretty regularly assumed the cognomen of Vindex, or Avenger."
Etymology
From Latin cognōmen, from con- (“with”) + nōmen (“name; family name”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.