English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Anglo-Norman splendur, splendour, or directly from its source Latin splendor, from the verb splendere (to shine).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

splendor (usually uncountable, plural splendors) (American spelling)

  1. Great light, luster or brilliance.
    • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
      What tho’ the moon—the white moon
      Shed all the splendour of her noon,
      Her smile is chilly—and her beam,
      In that time of dreariness, will seem
      (So like you gather in your breath)
      A portrait taken after death.
    • 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Rhinoceros got its skin”, in Just So Stories:
      Once upon a time on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental-splendour.
  2. Magnificent appearance, display or grandeur.
    The splendor of the Queen's coronation was without comparison.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
  3. Great fame or glory.

Usage notes edit

Splendor is the standard spelling in American English. Splendour is correct in modern British and Commonwealth English.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Anagrams edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

From splendeō +‎ -or.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

splendor m (genitive splendōris); third declension

  1. sheen, brightness, brilliance, lustre, splendor
  2. renown, fame

Declension edit

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative splendor splendōrēs
Genitive splendōris splendōrum
Dative splendōrī splendōribus
Accusative splendōrem splendōrēs
Ablative splendōre splendōribus
Vocative splendor splendōrēs

Descendants edit

References edit

  • splendor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • splendor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to sully one's fair fame: vitae splendori(em) maculas(is) aspergere

Old French edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin splendor.

Noun edit

splendor oblique singularf (oblique plural splendors, nominative singular splendor, nominative plural splendors)

  1. splendor (brilliant brightness)

Descendants edit

References edit

Polish edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin splendor.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

splendor m inan

  1. splendor (magnificent appearance, display or grandeur)
  2. privilege, honor

Declension edit

Further reading edit