epitome
/əˈpɪt.ə.mi/noun
epitome is spelled E-P-I-T-O-M-E. The wrong spelling people search most is epitomy: about 320 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Epitome is a noun meaning “The embodiment or encapsulation of a class of items”. The plural of epitome is epitomes or epitomai.
How many letters and syllables are in epitome?
| Letters | 7: E-P-I-T-O-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 20,101st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, epitomy, about 320 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell epitome?
Epitome is spelled E-P-I-T-O-M-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for epitome in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is epitome?
Epitome appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 20,101st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce epitome?
- UK /əˈpɪt.ə.mi/
- UK /ɪˈpɪt.ə.mi/
- UK /ˈɛpɪtoʊm/
Epitome has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-epitome.ogg, En-us-epitome-2.ogg, En-au-epitome.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of epitome
- epitomes plural
- epitomai plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does epitome mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The embodiment or encapsulation of a class of items.
- 2
A representative example.
- 3
The height; the best; the most vivid.
- 4
A brief summary of a text.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Epitome in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | résumé, épitomé , personnification, incarnation , abrégé |
| German | Verkörperlichung , Abriss |
| Portuguese | epítome |
| Spanish | epítome , personificación, encarnación , resumen, sinopsis |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does epitome come from?
From Middle French, from Latin epitomē, from Ancient Greek ἐπιτομή (epitomḗ, “an abridgment, also a surface-incision”), from ἐπιτέμνω (epitémnō, “to cut upon the surface, cut short, abridge”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “up”) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).