flamen
/ˈfleɪmən/noun
flamen is a noun meaning “A priest devoted to the service of a particular god, from whom he received a distinguishing epithet. The most honored were those of Jupiter, Mars…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-L-A-M-E-N, and it appears about once in every 50 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of flamen is flamens or flamines.
What does flamen mean?
noun
- 1
A priest devoted to the service of a particular god, from whom he received a distinguishing epithet. The most honored were those of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, called respectively Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, and Flamen Quirinalis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce flamen?
- /ˈfleɪmən/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-flamen.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of flamen
- flamens plural
- flamines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is flamen?
Flamen appears about once in every 50 million words in written English, the 220,118th 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).
Words people confuse with flamen
Sounds like: flehmen (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Flamen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Latin priest:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flamine, flaminique |
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 flamen come from?
Borrowed from Latin flāmen (“ancient Roman priest devoted exclusively to one deity”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).