illustrious
il·lus·tri·ous/ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/adjective
illustrious is spelled I-L-L-U-S-T-R-I-O-U-S: 11 letters and 4 syllables (il·lus·tri·ous). It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, illustrious means “Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in illustrious?
| Letters | 11: I-L-L-U-S-T-R-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: il·lus·tri·ous |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words; the 19,336th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is illustrious?
Illustrious appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th 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 illustrious?
- UK /ɪˈlʌs.tɹɪ.əs/
- US /ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/
- US [-ˈləs-]
Illustrious has 4 syllables, split il·lus·tri·ous in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-illustrious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of illustrious
- more illustrious comparative
- most illustrious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does illustrious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Illustrious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense admired, respected, or well-known:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | illustre |
| German | glorreich, erlaucht |
| Portuguese | ilustre |
| Spanish | ilustre, ínclito, preclaro |
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 illustrious come from?
From Latin illūstris (“bright, shining; distinguished, prominent, illustrious”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree). Illūstris is derived from illūstrō (“to brighten, illuminate; to make famous or illustrious”), from in- (“in, inside”) + lūstrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lūstrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or *lewh₃- (“to wash”)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).