famous
/ˈfeɪ.məs/adjective
famous is spelled F-A-M-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is famoust: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 1,429 of all searches for the word. Famous is an adjective meaning “Well known”.
How many letters and syllables are in famous?
| Letters | 6: F-A-M-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 69 times per million words; the 1,528th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, famoust, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
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 famous?
Famous is spelled F-A-M-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 1,369 of the searches for famous 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 famous?
Famous appears 69 times per million words in written English, the 1,528th 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 famous?
- /ˈfeɪ.məs/
Famous has 2 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-famous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with famous
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of famous
- more famous comparative
- most famous superlative
- famouses present, singular, he/she/it
- famousing participle, present
- famoused participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does famous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Well known.
- 2
In the public eye.
Some people are only famous within their city.
- 3
Excellent.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo make famous; to bring renown to.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Famous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fameux, célèbre, connu |
| German | bekannt, berühmt |
| Portuguese | famoso, afamado, célebre , conhecido |
| Spanish | famoso, célebre, afamado, conocido, espectable, expectable |
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 famous come from?
From Middle English famous, from Anglo-Norman famous, from Latin fāmōsus, equivalent to fame + -ous. Displaced native Old English hlīsful.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).