ignominy
/ˈɪɡnəˌmɪni/noun
ignominy is spelled I-G-N-O-M-I-N-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 66,686th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ignominy means “Great dishonor, shame, or humiliation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ignominy is ignominies.
How many letters and syllables are in ignominy?
| Letters | 8: I-G-N-O-M-I-N-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 66,686th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in 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).
How common is ignominy?
Ignominy appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 66,686th 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 ignominy?
- US /ˈɪɡnəˌmɪni/
- US /ˈɪɡnəˌmɪni/
- US /ˈɪɡnəməni/
Ignominy 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-ignominy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ignominy
- ignominies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ignominy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Great dishonor, shame, or humiliation.
Near-synonym: bad name
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ignominy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense great dishonor, shame, or humiliation:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ignominie |
| German | Schmach, Schande, Schändlichkeit, Unaussprechlichkeit |
| Portuguese | ignomínia, desonra |
| Spanish | ignominia |
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 ignominy come from?
Borrowed from French ignominie, from Latin ignōminia, from ig- (“not”) + nomen (“name”) (prefix assimilated form of in-).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).